Polishing Wheels

[Forrest 35]

I have recently been giving my wheels a little love and polishing them. I used a slightly 'more abrasive' polish on a couple scratches on the polished lips. This in turn exposed the slightly dull 'chrome' dish to a near mirror polish.

I used Autosol which seems to work, but it takes forever to do just a small patch to a mirror finish (I want to do the entire lip on all four wheels). I also have tried Mothers Mag + Alloy Wheel Polish which works, but not to the same extent as Autosol did, which I already knew was quite abrasive.

Does anyone recommend anything else/had better success with something else?

Before anyone asks I am NOT getting the wheels machine polished, I am doing this all by hand, to work the biceps of course, gotta give the babes something to cream over

Cheers, Nath

[Guest Simon*]

[Jamez 2147483647]

I have found "Silvo" does a really nice job at keeping my RS's shiny.

[Braeden320 0]

I did a very tarnished alloy rocker cover on one of my old cars with autosol and very fine grade scotchbright pads.

It came up really good but be carefull not to but to much pressure on or go in different directions.

[Forrest 35]

^ Yeah I had the idea of scotchbrite pads used together with Autosol. I will see if that makes a difference. Yeah it is pretty key to keep it going in the same direction.

James, isn't that Silvo stuff only polish for silver things? Didn't realise RS's are Silver plated :S maybe that'd explain the price

Edited February 24, 2010 by Forrest

[westy 614]

I've never found anything better than Autosol.

[Forrest 35]

^If it is good enough for Westy, it's good enough for me. Will post up some results soon enough.

[JiB 0]

Find someone with an air compressor, small buffer and ............machine polish

[Forrest 35]

^ I have an air compressor, maybe a small buffer will help

Half way thru one wheel. Feel the burn lol

[Jamez 2147483647]

On the back of the silvo bottle it says it also works well on aluminium, hence why I use it.

[Forrest 35]

^ Oh I see, good work.

Can confirm Autosol + Scotchbrite pad works pretty damn well Took about three circuits of polishing + buffing to get it all matched nicely.

[Lucan 196]

http://www.mx6.com/forums/2g-faq-appearanc...ror-finish.html

Something along these lines...

[westy 614]

Find someone with an air compressor, small buffer and ............machine polish

You can also use an electric (power not battery) drill or even a random orbit sander ect with the Autosol, Brasso, even cutting compound for paint.

Either a cheap backing attachment and pad for the drill or there are Velcro backed pads you can buy for the random orbit.

Dont ever use an angle grinder, they spin way too fast.

Polishing ally, polishing paint even polishing plastic such as tail lights ect it's all the same process.

[Forrest 35]

^ I might give that a stab tmoro. Cheers Tony

[JiB 0]

Btw - after polishing - wax or clear(if you can get it to stick) might be a good idea.

Polishing exposes fresh metal to the elements = corrosion = ugly. My RS's turned to pooz soon after I polished them 'cos I cbf overcoating.

[westy 614]

Thats true.

I remember polishing a set of rims weekly back in the day Ha.

BTW the random orbit needs to be really grunty to work = expensive.

Stick with the drill and use those flapper wheels like in start of that link for doing wheel rims. Depending on how bad the surface corrosion is you can start with 2000 grit wet'n'dry.

[Nobimmer 694]

1200 w&d then 2000 w&d then autosol with a buffing wheel works awesome.

[Forrest 35]

I decided to play it safe this time and not use any electrical devices that were recommended above.

I used:

Autosol with a mixture of a microfiber cloth + Scotch Brite pad (the gentle non scratching version) and a 'Hard' bristled toothbrush for the awkward hard to reach areas.

Polished the dish until I got a balanced finish, did notice the less polish you use the better it is. I used several clean microfiber cloth's to buff in between polishes and cleaners until I had the desired result. I then used a less abrasive polish i.e I used Mothers Mag Wheel and Aluminum Polish, then waxed the wheel including the dish with Mothers Carnuba Cleaner Wax (what I usually use on the whole car and it is fantastic, would recommend especially on old paint jobs). Apparently the wax helps prevent the freshly cut alloy from oxidizing at a faster rate than unprotected.

I think they will just need a polish every clean with the Mothers Polish and then Wax to keep oxidisation at bay and they will stay looking awesome. Plan on doing the Autosol cut every 6 months at the least, it takes a lot of time and patience to get looking mint

Oh and the result:

It is hard to tell the difference from the pics, but in real life the effort was well worth it.

Cheers, Nathan

[zenetti 0]

FW1 is also really good for bringing out the shine!

check this wheel out

[Forrest 35]

FW1 Jono??

[Guest Simon*]

Not to be unkind Nathan, but how dirty or tarnished were they???

You've had them since new for what, 6 months and they've only been on the car half that time?

This isn't a long slow buildup to April fools joke or something?

[Forrest 35]

^ Well originally I was using autosol to take a few of the light scratches I had noticed on one or two of the wheels, in doing this it exposed these areas to a mirror shine (not on purpose might I add) so thought f**k it (being the perfectionist I am) needed uniform shine over all the wheels so polished the lot. They look good now. FYI yes I have only driven 1000km on them since I got them to change soon though might I add

[Guest Simon*]

Fair enough then

If you want some proper big guns, I'll drop off a set of my rims for you to work over 18x9" is a lot of workout brother!

[Forrest 35]

I will come up for a drive some time soon and give it a go

As Lance Armstrong once said "Pain is temporary, quitting is forever"

[Guest Simon*]

He also said "I'm sure I had two nuts when I went to sleep!"