DIY Wheel Polishing

[Burton]

These are just the processes that have worked for me, the steps I have taken, and the tricks I've learned along the way. I'm sure there's other ways to go about it and get comparable results. If anyone else has done it and found other tricks I've missed, feel free to add your tips as well. This process can also be used to polish any type of aluminum part.

 

It's not something that can be done quick and easy and requires alot of work, but It can be done fairly cheap and really makes a huge difference in the way your car looks. There are ways to go about it that is quicker and easier than the way I do it, but I think the end result is not quite as impressive. I'll try and explain the quicker alternatives as I go along as well- I'll denote them with a **.

 

 

 

 

Step 1- tails the wheels and determine what you want to accomplish.

 

Do you want to polish the whole thing, or do you want to do a polished lip, painted center wheel section (CWS)? Is there any damage as far as curb rash or corrosion? The worse the damage, the more work you have ahead of you. If your wheels are nearly mint, then you have some options that would make it way easier, depending on how you feel about cutter marks on the center section (I'll get into this in a moment).

 

Step 2- Strip the factory clear.

 

I use cans of Aircraft Stripper that are available at AutoZone and other auto parts stores- Possibly even available at places like WalMart and such. If you wish to maintain the grey factory paint in the center of the spokes (COS), you'll want to tape it off before you spray the stripper. Personally, I just strip the whole wheel and repaint the COS whatever color I want wether it be near stock color, black, or car color.

Follow the directions on the stripper can and its a piece of cake. Don't make the mistake I did- leaveing the stripper on for twice as long as the can says does not take it off easier. It took 4 applications to get it all off. By following the instructions on the can, its never taken more than 2 applications to get it all off.

Once it's stripped, you'll be able to see what you're up against. corrosion will stick out, along with the machine marks in the CWS. Looking at the CWS you'll see "rings" in it, kinda like looking at the rings in a tree trunk. These are the cutter marks left over when the CWS was machined when the wheel was built. **Personally I hate the machine marks, but people with mint wheels have been known to just skip the whole sanding process at this point and polish it as is- machine marks and all. It deffinately makes the wheel better, but you can really make em bling if you go thru all the steps.

 

 

Step 3- Damage repair.

 

If your wheels have dammage like curb rash, corrosion, or dings, now is the time to fix that stuff up. For curb rash I'll take a little angle grinder with like 40 grit to knock it down somewhat smooth, then grind with 60 grit to get the 40 grit marks out, and sand with 80 grit to get the 60 marks out. Big dents and dings from like a lug wrench being bounced off of it can be smoothed out with 80 grit- maybe 60 if it's really bad. For bad pits from corrosion, you can use 80 grit, but go no lower in grit than what you have to. Most corrosion can be handled by starting at the next step.

 

 

Step 4- Dry sanding.

 

At this point, you should have either mint, bare metal, minor corrosion or dings, or 80 grit in repair areas. Start wih 120. I like to use a little mouse sander- one of those little triangular looking sanders. this will save you so much time and get you smoother rsults. It is very important to sand evenly- especially with the lower grit papers. Not only can it sand grooves in the metal to the countours of your finger if you are hand sanding, but also if you sand in too small of an area and not evenly around, you'll get a very uneven looking finish at the end. The mouse sander helps remedy both these problems. It is sepecially helpful when sanding CWS and removing the machining marks. I think you can find paper for the mose sanders up to nearly 300 grit.

Sand with 120 till all the 80 grit scratces, corrosion, and machine marks are gone. Use 220 until the 120 marks are gone, then 320 til the 220 marks are gone. Now, I should touch on something here. The CWS and the lip are two seprate parts welded together at the factory. Due to different forging, casting and machining techniques the two pieces ended up with different properties. The lip always seems to polish up easier and brighter than the CWS. By spending more time and using more thurough sanding techniuqes on the CWS you can make them have a more evn shine over the whole wheel. If you plan to paint the COS, you don't need to sand on that area yet, there's a step at the end you can clean this up with. The COS section has been known to be polished before. More of a PITA than I want to try to accomplish, but would polish up fine using the same process used on the rest of the wheel

A sanding technique used in body repair called crosshatching will help with this. You'll want to sand the CWS with an "X" type pattern. Make a few strokes in one direction, then come back and make a few strokes in the perpendicular direction. Its not so important to do this on the lip area. I'll sand in strokes going around the lip in one direction. My strokes will be about 1/4-1/3 of the distance around the lip. I'll continue to do that until the previous grit marks are gone, then come back and quickly kinda try and crosshatch that.

** Some people with wheels in decent shape will skip the dry sanding process and start with the next step. Sometimes, if you have minor flaws you can just do the dry sanding steps in just the flawed areas then skip to the next step. Again, it will give you decent results- better than just a strip and polish. But still won't give you the bling that doing the whole process will.

** Also, if you wish to paint the CWS, this is as far as you need to sand this area. Don't paint it yet, but don't waste your time sanding it more.

 

 

Step 5- Wet sanding

 

Same principles as above and same techniques apply. You'll want to get the scratches of the previous grit papers out before you switch to the next grit up. You can use water- adding a little dish soap or car wash soap to the water will help lubricate it and make sanding easier. I like to use vegatable or peanut oil. It lubricates very well, and I think the paper seems to jast longer. The only down fall of this is if you wish to paint the COS or CWS you will want to wash the wheel extremely well before you tape and paint. Tape and paint don't adhere well to oily surfaces. If you use the oils, be prepared to give the wheels a thurough washing with soap and water. After polishing you'll need to do this anyway to get all the left over compound off. Start with 400 grit and work your way up- 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500. I also like to stop at 1500 on the lip and then hit the CWS with 2000- just to get those areas slightly smoother than the lip to try and get the shine more even across the whole wheel.

 

 

Step 6- Polishing

 

This is the part that really makes all the work worthwhile. I have a few power tools I use to make the job easier. Of course, all of it can be done by hand, but wouls honestly suck to do.

First I start with a rubbing compound. I use a large polishing wheel to get all the easily accessable areas, then go back to get the nooks and cranies with a polish wheel on a Dremell or one of those cotton wheels on a 1/4" stud that can be put in a high speed drill or die grinder. It will throw crap everywhere and will take a minute to get the feel of how it works, but eventually you'll get the hang of it.

Next I take a polishing compound and do the same stuff I did with the rubbing compound. After that I polish them by hand with a standard wheel polish or other metal polish.

 

 

Step 7- Painting.

 

 

After a nice wash with soap and water to get any copmpunds or oils off, dry the wheels with a towel to get water spots off, then let them airdry for a while. After you tape off the areas you don't want paint on, get a ScotchBrite and scub the areas needing paint well to get the area free of contaminants and also give the paint something to bite into.

Use a paint that will stand higher heats. Dupli-Colr makes a wheel paint with numerous colors that works well. Engine paints or even grill paints work well too.

Personally I only clear the painted areas. I've heard of people reclearing the polished parts, but I think it kills the shine a bit. Granted, with the aluminum not protected, it will require an occasional hand job with wheel polish to shine them back up. We do ours about twice a year.

 

 

 

Hope this helps you guys. anyone with any input as far as their experience should feel free to add their advice too.

[1st_gen_eclipse_89]

i have at least 5 sets of wheels layin around. i didn't think the polishing process was that simply really. well, its not that simple, but i've never actually had anyone explain it to me before. this is great info. should be a sticky.. (hint to moderators) :wink: im going to test this out on one of worst condition wheels i have layin around. if i can make that one look good, then all hell is gonna break loose on the others.

[J_Copeland]

Real good post.

 

THANKS

[FijiPhil]

Thanks Mark!

 

I think im gonna try this when i take my car off the road for winter

[IntercooledFlatty]

i hear ya

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s263/aiche_photos/855%20Flatty/wheels015.jpg

flatty love 8)

[kaferwerks]

Just a couple of things to ad that arent specific to this but good advice:

 

If you dont have experience with power tools...i.e a DA (dual action) sander PLEASE practice on something that you can ruin before putting it on your rims. Aluminium as we all know is soft and it wont take very long to screw it up with a electric/pnuematic sander...if you are unsure of your abilities then do it by hand. You will save yourself a lot of heartache and may build a little muscle along the way.

 

the other tip is along the same lines but with your buffer...Use it a few times and get the feel of it. We stay away from any of the wool pads and only use foam...however one of the wool pads may need to be used here with all of the edges on the rims. Different cutting compounds may reduce the amount of sanding that needs to be done too but that would reveal itself all on its own...might have to be careful with that approach because it could round your edges a little more than you want.

 

be very careful with the dremel....too high of a speed = no polishing compound and nice discolored spots due to heat. Dont be afraid to wet your work area...we keep spray bottles full of water just to mist the area we are working on...it works really nice.