Polishing Rims!!!

[Cole Angrimson]

Ok I've got the paint off of one rim and i'm working on sanding the remaining paint and stuff. After that i'm curious what i should use to polish them? anybody have any suggestions? i could use them. I'm having a good time sanding right now and man is that time consuming. But it will look sweet in the end if i do it right. as soon as i can i'll get pics up. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[speedy-v6-camaro]

Use finer sandpaper until your are down to 2000 grit....then wet sand it and polish with some mothers or any other aluminum polish....might take a little while...but it will look good.

[Domestic Violence]

i hope you like sanding. i removed the paint from my rims, but the rims are so porous that it's a mofo sanding them down enough to look good. it took me a week and a half to do 2 rims. i got them looking very good, but i changed my mind and painted them graphite.

[Shirl]

Mother's or Blue Magic

[Tyler]

wouldnt it be better to get the heavy sanding done faster by using a dremel?

[bobrules]

Power tools do magic....Mothers is not what you use to get the actual finish. You want to use Tripoli and Rouge compound after you sand the wheel down. Mothers is for maintaining the shine....yes you can do it with mothers, but Tripoli and Rouge were mean't for the job.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/itemdy00.a...14+Z&Dep_Key1=

Its personal preference, however you can get your wheels to shine to your liking is fine. But general rule of thumb is to hit the wheel with a power tool. Lower grit to resurface and remove pores/pits. Then move to finer grits (400-600). I was told that by sanding with very fine sandpaper such as 1500, then 2000 etc etc. creates tiny pores in the surface, when you polish them, the mothers will get into those tiny pores and (for those who have polished before, you know that the mothers turns black) well the black gets into the pores, and you get a "cloudy" look. For mirror like results you shouldn't need to do more then 600 grit, again, if you want to go to all the trouble to do 2000+ grit, thats your choice, and if it comes out to your liking fine. Just a little advice.

Edit: If you want a "professional" job, I know a guy who does this.

http://www.polishinginc.com/

He polished an LT1 intake/water pump for someone I know. I've seen it in real life, he uses HEAVY duty power tools and has alot of experience. It looks better then chrome it's so deep and perfectly smooth. You don't even need to strip the wheels for him, power tools just blow it away. He's decently priced, just a thought.

[ February 15, 2004, 01:40 AM: Message edited by: bobrules ]

[Distephano]

Hey Hey! DV is still kickin!

Thanks for the pics you sent me quite a while ago about the wheels.

I STILL haven't started mine, so much to do this winter. But I have got everything to start now.

And I've got a bent wheel the practice on first [img]smile.gif[/img]

I did pick up a few things that I think will make the process go MUCH faster [img]smile.gif[/img]



I'm still looking for some sort of thing I could use to make the paintstriping/sanding go faster with using that though...

I'll let you know how it goes when I finaly get started!

[Cole Angrimson]

Thanks guys. i haven't worked on it much but i'm thinking about going up to town to get some stuff to work on my rim:)