best way to polish up alloy wheel rim?

Post Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:51 pm

and whats best to use?
thanks

Post Sat Mar 31, 2007 1:59 pm

and should i coat the whole wheel with laquer after ive polished the rim?

Post Sat Mar 31, 2007 2:57 pm

depends what sort of condition they're in.

if theyre heavily pitted thyll need to be sanded first, working up through the grit grades.

for actual polishing, nothin i have tried comes close to autosol. cuts through oxidation quickly and easily and gives a nice bright shine. if you want a perfect mirror finish you'll have to use a finer polish afterwards.

don't lacquer, it'll take away some of the shine, and if it chips or cracks even the smallest amout it will let in moisture which will corrode the alloy under the lacquer which looks terrible and is a complete pain to fix as it means stripping the rim and starting again.

keep them bare, but polish them regularly.

Post Sat Mar 31, 2007 3:04 pm

The good news is aluminium is a very easy metal to polish and the longer you polish it the smoother and shinier it gets, but in your case it depends on how bad the wheel is. if you want to keep a wheel polished that easy, but to take an old wheel and refurb it is more difficult, i did one rim (the BBS currently on my car) and decided for the money i costs to have it done by a pro was worth it (plus they have the advantage of chemical cleaning tanks etc)

If you want to keep an already good rim shiney then i do mine with a 6 inch soft musilin polishing wheel and a drill. i use normal polishing paste (looks like toothpaste but not minty

) then simply apply the paste and polish with the musilin wheel. then i finish with brasso. it takes about 5 mins a wheel and i do it with the wheels on the car before i wash it, then i apply normal car polish and buff it off.

I was advised not to lacquer over the top of a polished rim as once the lacquer is cracked (and this is almost certain to happen) water will get underneath and turn the aluminium yellow (oxidisation) underneath the lacqure - very ugly - better to just poilsh them once a week

Post Sat Mar 31, 2007 3:50 pm

Agreed with not laquering them afterwards, I've used polishing bars intended for stainless steel to cut back a satinised surface, and then use something like T-Cut original for final polishing as it's nice and fine.

Toothpaste (the cheaper the better) also works wonders as it too is a very fine abrasive

Post Sat Mar 31, 2007 7:47 pm

I got a kit from here >> http://www.frost.co.uk/

Post Sat Mar 31, 2007 11:23 pm

i agree with not laquering them. i had mint diamond cut on the rims as i parked within 100yds of the sea at the time i thought it best to lacquer them to keep the salt off, a year or so later and though they've never been near a curb (other than the one i smashed

) the lacquer has lifted a little in a few places. annoying as they are still totally sealed. it seems that the lacquer was actually pourus and obviously doesn't bond to the aluminium very well. that said, after a year next to the sea they may well have looked a lot worse otherwise. incidentally, to get an idea of the conditions, every morning the disks would be rusty as fook and take a few stops to clean up

they were done by lepsons and in all fairness they did recommend that i left them bare and they withheld the corrosion warranty on the rim area as they said it will happen at some point.