Polishing Wheels

[Zoomina34]

I want to polish my stock rims when spring rolls around, just dont know how to go about it. First problem is how to get the clearcoat off? Is there some kind of miracle solvent that will make it peel right off? Once the clear is off do i go ahead and polish? Can i polish the machined face or do i have to smooth it out? Will a rotary buffer work? What about the painted parts ? Should i re-clearcoat the rims after? So many questions...

 

Also,i have boxes of F1 metal polish at my work. Has anyone ever used this stuff before and does it work well?

 

Whoever owns the black euro with polished rims (black90euro maybe?) any input from you would be great becasue thats what i want mine to look like. Got any up close pictures of them?

[tomz34]

I also plan on polishing a set of factory rims. I actually bought a

chemical in a bottle at the fall Carlisle car show here in Pa., its a clear

coat remover used for removing clear coat from aluminum rims. I also

bought various polishing compounds and buffing wheels from this vendor.

The name of the company/vendor is Busch Enterprises, Inc. located in

Statesville NC., (phone # (704) 878-2067). I am almost positive they

do mail order, they specialize in this kind of stuff. Give them a call they

will definatley be able to help you with your questions/needs. I haven't

gotten around to using there stuff yet on my own rims, I too will be doing

this project in the spring. Hope this info. helps, have a merry x-mas.

[phantomFE3]

i polished my wheels, they arent shiny chrome polished, but they look decent, i used a special scotch bright pad thing and a die grinder to polish, to get the clearcoat off i used the same die grinder and setup except i had a special pad that was just like sandpaper, it worked pretty well, look on my cardomain site to look at the pics

[mfewtrail]

I grabbed this from an old post where I asked about this

 

Brian P. responded to me with this

"Most aluminum can be polished, just get past the paint and take your time. Use wet 400 grit, then 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000, 2200 and even 2400 then clearcoat polishing compound, then wax, and you'll have near-chrome. I'll be doing this to my wheels too, when I get that 8th day per week I've been requesting from the government Also it;s a good idea to get a dremel tool for the edges and creases. Keep me posted if you decide to do it"

 

That's the basic gist of things to do when polishing. If you search the internet a bit, you'll find a lot of great write-ups on polishing as well...if you're doing this by hand, expect to spend a ton of time on this(you're probably going to need some sanding/polishing bits and a small rotary tool to get into small places), I never went through with polishing wheels yet..I plan to buy a spare set of stock wheels(I'm just doing it to be doing it I guess because I think the stockers would look good this way..but I'm getting aftermarket wheels soon as well..so I guess I'll have a spare set of polished ones to throw on) from the junkyard to do one day instead of having to throw my car on jackstands for a week or more to finish the wheels, anyways, as far as clearing them again, you will definitely want to or you would have to repolish them about every day or so to keep them looking right..I recommend getting them professionally clearcoated with a good quality automotive clear. I've used high-temperature automotive clear from a local place on some aluminum pieces I've polished and had no problems with it holding up..if you use some cheaper clears, they will yellow after a while. You can buy automotive clearcoat from a lot of places, just make sure to read up on spraying clear if you've never done it before and plan to do it yourself, my bro-in-law was a professional auto painter so he's going to be clearing my wheels..although I'm confident I can do it myself as I've been toying around with body work/painting. After they're cleared, they should be no problem to clean. You'll basically just have to wipe them down from time to time. Good luck with whatever you decide to do. I am sorta planning on offering some stock intake plenums and valve covers, etc. in polished form soon, but I have no clue when I'll start on this, it would be an on-the-side project for me.

[mfewtrail]

here's an example of a piece of aluminum I polished(it connected the intercooler inlet hose to the turbo and to the compressor bypass valve on my 88 volvo 740 turbo )

http://images.cardomain.com/member_images/1/web/265000-265999/265887_16_full.jpg

[92turboLE]

PFFFFT!!!

 

anyone can wire wheel metal and call it polished.

 

here is what you get when you actually take the time to do it the proper way (not bashing on anyone here but there is a difference between polished and cleaned)

 

 

this is my (ex) 3.1 plenum. It came from a 91 grand prix. It was powder coated/painted except for the top raised section. Polishing is definately and art and a science - but mostly an art and is not something you can pick up right away generally.

 

Basicly all you have to do is sand first. use a small 2 inch sanding disk with a drill or angle grinder to take out any casting burs (texture commonly found on cast aluminum) or seams. DO NOT use anything rougher then 280grit as it will scratch too deep and make it hard to polish out.

 

Once you have most of the major stuff out of the way, its time to get down to the fun stuff, HAND SANDING. Now depending on what you are polishing, you can cheat. For example, for the top flat part of the plenum where it is textured, i used a belt sander to give me a nice, quick, even and most importantly, flat surface to work with. i used 280 grit wet. Next i moved to hand sanding, with 300 grit. One thing that many dont knowe about sanding aluminum is that each time you change paper grit, you need to change sanding direction. for example. picture the metal as a peice of wood that has grains. with paper A, you want to sand WITH the grain, then when you move to paper B, you want to sand against the grain (perpendicular to the previous direction). By doing this, you are more likely going to remove all previous sanding marks.

 

As Brian P. noted, you want to work your way up to anywhere between 2000 and 2400 grit, BUT, to add to what he said, you ONLY really need to do that if you are hand polishing. You can get away with 1500 grit if your using a machine.

 

The tricky part about polishing aluminum with a machine is that you have to have many polishing wheels as they will get clogged up with aluminum dust and eventually cause pitting and scratches. make sure you change pads often (they are usually pretty cheap - about $1.00 each).

 

you will notice right away that the aluminum will start to shine nice. First you want to start with a rather course compound, using moderate to heavy pressure, to make sure to remove any sanding marks. Then you want to periodically step up to finer and finer compounds. The finer the compound, the lighter the pressure that you will want to use. and i cant stress it enough, CHANGE THE PADS especially if you change compounds as it WILL pit and scratch your surface.

 

Once you have acheived the level of shinyness that you are looking for, YOUR NOT DONE! Regardless of how light of pressure you use, a machine will leave marks (similar to swirl marks from waxing). You will want to use a good hand polish for the final product before prepping to clear coat.

 

I personally use a compound called Semi-Chrome. It is about $15 US for a 1 oz tube, but is WELL worth it. I use only BRAND NEW polishing cloths to do this. Your rag/cloth should be black when you are done. Once you are finished with that, find another very soft cloth, or paper towels will work also, and polish off any residue with the clean dry cloth. When you think you have it all gone, go over it again, and then again.

 

now your ready to clear. This is a VERY important step as aluminum, if not protected can oxidize very quickly, not to mention that if you use any kind of cleaner, such as Simple Green or Castrol Super Clean, the aluminum will turn dark grey and you will have to re-polish (not to bad though, you can get it out by hand).

 

it is prefered that you use a GOOD automotive clear (like used on car paint, as rattle can clear generally will turn out a little foggy.

 

thats about all there is to it if you want a full mirror polish.

 

this valve cover took about 10-12 hours of work (although i wanst really knowing what i was doing) and would take me around 7-8 now.

 

a wheel should take you a full day of work to do one to a full mirror polish.

 

- Justin

[Zoomina34]

The Lumina wheels have that machined face, like from a lathe. Does it have to be sanded flat?

[92turboLE]

if you use a rather large buffing wheel and some rather abrasive compound, then no, but if your using something small (attached to a handheld drill) then yes.

 

make sure you get all the clear coat off first. you could use a chemical called "Aircraft Remover" that works wonders. You spray it on, let it sit for a few minutes and the clear bubbles right off, then you scrape everything off, wipe it as clean as you can. I would then suggest taking the wheel to a power car wash and applying more aircraft remover, then waiting and then blasting it with the high pressure sprayer.

 

- Justin

[phantomFE3]

if you use a rather large buffing wheel and some rather abrasive compound, then no, but if your using something small (attached to a handheld drill) then yes.

 

make sure you get all the clear coat off first. you could use a chemical called "Aircraft Remover" that works wonders. You spray it on, let it sit for a few minutes and the clear bubbles right off, then you scrape everything off, wipe it as clean as you can. I would then suggest taking the wheel to a power car wash and applying more aircraft remover, then waiting and then blasting it with the high pressure sprayer.

 

- Justin

i wouldnt use a hand held drill, youll be sitting there for hours, use a die grinder, youll get it done much easier thanks to the extremely high rpms that they spin at

[92turboLE]

that too...

 

- Justin

[Dannymik]

I wanted to bump this topis as its a common question on here.

[White93z34]

if i get bored enough i might just have to try this with my spare set of lumi wheels.