Polishing 101?
Polishing 101? Hey i just got my first set of polished wheels (usually chrome) so have honestly never polished aluminum wheels before. I got noxon 7 (recommended by numerous peep here) and a powerball for my cordless drill. I am basically wanting to know the best way of keeping my wheels looking sharp from start to finish. Anyone got a link or bored and feel like typing? LOL
Polish them often.... Seriously I polish my wheels every other time I wash the car so usually every two weeks. Since I do it so often it doesn't take long to do and they stay looking great. I don't like the power ball myself and I've never used that polish. I stick with Mother's billet polish because it seems to be the one that I've had the best finishing results with. The other polishes that I use from time to time are Gords and Magic Mix. When I polish I use a microfiber applicator and a microfiber towel. I found with cotton towels I would get fine scratches in the finish and using a good quality MF towel helped prevent that.
dont waste your money on the ball, been there tried that. i little bit of finger work looks alot better than the ball could do. plus the damn baal doesnt get in corners like you would think.
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The ball i got was the small one with the extension. I just figured it would save some time. It was only $20, if it turned pretty close to as good as hand it would be worth that. OR i could take it back and just do it by hand and spend half the day doing it LOL.. Any other tips/advice??
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Joined: Jun 2005
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From: Finland
I used to have to Polish my wheels ALOT when using Mother's polish... I got a tube of Autosol (supposed to be Wenol over there) after moving here, havent polished my wheels for a few months and they still look good (way better than after Mother's polish). Just my opinion/suggestion though.
Originally Posted by 11secondhorse
The ball i got was the small one with the extension. I just figured it would save some time. It was only $20, if it turned pretty close to as good as hand it would be worth that. OR i could take it back and just do it by hand and spend half the day doing it LOL.. Any other tips/advice??
Only time I spent most of the day polishing was for a car show when I let the wheels go months without polishing. I had some stains from brake dust and they were almost silver looking. I wet sanded and repolished each wheel... I spent maybe 8 hours on all the wheels but they looked better than new. If you keep up the wheels then it won't take long to keep looking good.
I bought my front two wheels used and one of them was left outside in some bad weather and caused some pitting in the lip (the rears were brand new). I used 120 grit on that one to start and worked my way up to 2000 grit. It took out all the pits and the wheel looked as good as new so that's what made me do the rest.
For the other wheels I started with 800,1000,1500,2000. Start off with something like 1000 and work up to 2000 and see how that works. Get a spray bottle and put some soap and water in it and spray the wheel as you sand. Keep the paper and the wheel wet when you sand. If you want you can soak the sand paper in some water before you start so it will help keep it wet. Then I hand polished with Mother's billet polish and a Microfiber towel. If you see a spot that left some maring behind go back and sand that area again pretty well with 2000 grit and then repolish. When I finished I was left with a very smooth scratch free finish. They looked better than the rear wheels ever did when I pulled them out of the box from AR
For the other wheels I started with 800,1000,1500,2000. Start off with something like 1000 and work up to 2000 and see how that works. Get a spray bottle and put some soap and water in it and spray the wheel as you sand. Keep the paper and the wheel wet when you sand. If you want you can soak the sand paper in some water before you start so it will help keep it wet. Then I hand polished with Mother's billet polish and a Microfiber towel. If you see a spot that left some maring behind go back and sand that area again pretty well with 2000 grit and then repolish. When I finished I was left with a very smooth scratch free finish. They looked better than the rear wheels ever did when I pulled them out of the box from AR
