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Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:16 pm

I'm looking at bringing some vintage wheels back to a nice shine. Two have mild oxidation, two a little bit worse. I've spent some time with a high speed long reach air polisher and some mothers aluminum Polish.....worked ok but could take hours a wheel. Can I just use some 1500 or 2000 wetsand paper and take off the heavy stuff? Or is that going to cause more work in the long run?

Mon Sep 22, 2014 4:22 pm

SiggyManx#33 wrote: I'm looking at bringing some vintage wheels back to a nice shine. Two have mild oxidation, two a little bit worse. I've spent some time with a high speed long reach air polisher and some mothers aluminum Polish.....worked ok but could take hours a wheel. Can I just use some 1500 or 2000 wetsand paper and take off the heavy stuff? Or is that going to cause more work in the long run?

Mon Sep 22, 2014 5:17 pm

I might try quick and dirty, spin them and use progressive grades of "rubbing/polishing compounds"... Final polish out with mothers...

"Compounds"come in several grades from heavy to fine...

Dale

Mon Sep 22, 2014 6:20 pm

I go straight to power buffing compound with a wool pad and a buffer. Makes them pop. Then I spend about 10 minutes with the mother's and a sponge style polisher in a drill to top off the effect. Final step I use is a good, high quality wax to protect the rims. I usually end up with about 2 hours per wheel once complete.

Tue Sep 23, 2014 8:31 am

I have polished a ton of aluminum - bicycle and motorcycle parts from near dead and brought them back to a mirror shine. You can go up the cycle of 400, 600, 800, 1200, 1500 paper grits and then polish but this takes for ever.

What I have found that on some rims, they have a protective clear coat which does not respond well to sanding. Unless you are going to take off the entire layer. If you do this be warned that you will be polishing your rims constantly if you want them to keep looking like chrome. You can get spray on clean coat remover if you want to go this route.

You could give "quick glo" a chance; Jay Leno endorses it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7TnNEBy3tI

Or you can use clay to clean up the pits then polish:
http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/wheel+cleaning+clay+7+ounces.do

Tue Sep 23, 2014 9:44 am

I don't have a lot of experience polishing wheels, but I've done a fair bit of alloy marine parts on my Boston Whaler. The wool polishing pad is a key ingredient. I'm not sure why, but the wool pads are superior at bringing shine up on anything you are machine polishing, be it metal, gelcoat or the clear resin on a surfboard.

Another thing that has worked well for getting the shine back is metal specific polishing compounds like Flitz paste. This is more of a finishing step after compound, Finesse It, etc.

http://www.flitz.com/flitz-polish-paste/

Tue Sep 23, 2014 12:46 pm

I use varying grades of wet sanding up to 3000 grit. I then polish with Diamondbrite aluminum polish. It is great stuff!!!...the best I have used. You can find it at lowes by the truck tool boxes.

Tue Sep 23, 2014 5:36 pm

So far 1500-2000 wet sanding and Mothers all by hand has got me 90% there on one wheel after work. I'll put together a side by side comparison for everyone's review.

No clear coat on these old fatties.

Tue Sep 23, 2014 5:50 pm

If you want those wheels to hurt your eyes when you look
at them and the sun sets on them, then you need to use
Wicked Products Metal Polish.

I went to a local chrome shop because I had royally messed
up a nice but older set of AA TTII 's using that God awful
wheel cleaner from a name brand company. That junk
oxidized and "burned" the finish on the wheels that
it made me almost sick ! The guy at the chrome shop
said they had pretty good luck with this stuff called
Wicked Products Metal Polish. He put some on a rag,
wiped it on one of the damaged spokes, rubbed a bit, then
polished it off with a rag and damn if the oxidation was
almost nonexistent. I couldn't friggin' believe it !

I don't have the pics I took of one of the wheels that
shows what happened and how the polish helped
pull it back together on this computer, but I believe
I do on the other computer. If any are interested
I'll see later on and post the pic if I still have it.
If you want to see what it did to another member's
wheels over at another site, chick the link.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y208/GeorgesBlazah/5200a488.jpg

So I found the website for Wicked and they're over in
Corona Ca. Went and bought some and a Flitz polishing
ball and went to work. It was pretty amazing how they
came out and I didn't spend that much time on them.

Wicked Products simply kick azz..

www.wickedproducts.com

http://www.wickedproducts.com/wickedshop/Shiny_Metal/7_Metal_Polish.html