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my 1st attempt at polishing
well i got this wheel smoothing/buffing kit from eastwood the other day. the box absolutely reeked of some kind of dead alien carcass... i did a couple of spots (one portion of a centercap and one spoke) on the worst looking wheel. i dont know how many of you realize, the oem salad shooter wheels are rough cast, sprayed with a heavy primer, basecoated, and clearcoated (painted) and it takes a good bit of work to make them look good again. i suppose you could just repaint them but no, i have to be different.
i stripped the paint off the face of one spoke and went to polishing. the centercaps however just need to be wet sanded and polished. ill get to that in a minute.
the kit is simple really. it comes with 4 of one kind and 1 of another kind of 4" buffing wheels, 2 "goblet" shaped buffs (for getting in the corners) with the necessary arbors to chuck the buffs in a drill or similar tool. i tried with a right angle die grinder (mines a bigger die grinder than most, i dont know how well a cheapie would do) but its hard to regulate, they need to be spun at 2500 to 3000 rpm no more no less. id just stick with an electric drill.
the kit also comes with 3 grits of greaseless cutting compounds (80, 220, 320)for smoothing the material. there are also 2 different polishing compounds (tripoli and white rouge) that are a part of the kit. essentially you use the compounds starting with the rough grit working your way to the finer grits. be sure to wash the wheel thouroughly between compounds and the application of the compounds can be trying. you have to rub a small amount of compound or polish to the spinning wheel, it will melt the compound onto the wheel. let the compound dry completely (10-15 minutes) and you can proceed to buff. they say strike the buff with something like a screwdriver handle to improve flexibility of the buff, i can guess do this while its NOT in motion but they dont mention...
after all the compounds and washing you should end up with something like this:
probably needs more polishing...
now, about the center caps. these have a chrome coating on them, they are not metal of any kind. if you polish/wet sand too much you will pretty much ruin them. with that said here is what you can achieve with 1500 or 2000 wet sand paper and some polishing compound:
now like i said this is my 1st attempt, so i think it will only get better. more pics to come when at least one wheel is completely done.
i stripped the paint off the face of one spoke and went to polishing. the centercaps however just need to be wet sanded and polished. ill get to that in a minute.
the kit is simple really. it comes with 4 of one kind and 1 of another kind of 4" buffing wheels, 2 "goblet" shaped buffs (for getting in the corners) with the necessary arbors to chuck the buffs in a drill or similar tool. i tried with a right angle die grinder (mines a bigger die grinder than most, i dont know how well a cheapie would do) but its hard to regulate, they need to be spun at 2500 to 3000 rpm no more no less. id just stick with an electric drill.
the kit also comes with 3 grits of greaseless cutting compounds (80, 220, 320)for smoothing the material. there are also 2 different polishing compounds (tripoli and white rouge) that are a part of the kit. essentially you use the compounds starting with the rough grit working your way to the finer grits. be sure to wash the wheel thouroughly between compounds and the application of the compounds can be trying. you have to rub a small amount of compound or polish to the spinning wheel, it will melt the compound onto the wheel. let the compound dry completely (10-15 minutes) and you can proceed to buff. they say strike the buff with something like a screwdriver handle to improve flexibility of the buff, i can guess do this while its NOT in motion but they dont mention...
after all the compounds and washing you should end up with something like this:
probably needs more polishing...
now, about the center caps. these have a chrome coating on them, they are not metal of any kind. if you polish/wet sand too much you will pretty much ruin them. with that said here is what you can achieve with 1500 or 2000 wet sand paper and some polishing compound:
now like i said this is my 1st attempt, so i think it will only get better. more pics to come when at least one wheel is completely done.
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