Polishing stock wheels ?

[FELLENLONG]

I like the look of the stock Svo wheels polished. Has anyone here personally do it themselves?? If so what supplies do you recommend i get to do them?? Thanks

[diesel]

i polished my wheels...a lot of work .they look great but could be better. i can see myself in them but they are not exactly the reflection i am looking for. i did a wet sanding process with 600,800,1000,1250,1500 and then with metal polish. dont get me wrong, they look awesome but are still a work in progess.

[diesel]

sorry...forgot to mention that you need to remove the clearcoat before the sanding process. i used the aircraft paint remover in a spray can from autozone.

[StefRobrts]

Oh, such a timely topic! Just today I pulled off one wheel, had the tire store remove the bald Falken, and brought the wheel home to start polishing it (car's wearing the spare). I started out just using some Mother's by hand, and was getting a nice shine going, but there is still some clear coat on there, so I guess I will get some stripper and start over. Already it looks 100 times better.

The back ones are worse, I think the PO had every cat in the neighborhood marking his wheels!

[StefRobrts]

This evening I had a few free minutes and went out to work on the wheel some more. I have some bottles of a liquid polish called Southern Shine. I remembered on our Airstream Trailer forum people saying they had used it to polish and it would take off the clearcoat, so they could skip the stripping step.

So I put some on my buffer using a big fluffy pad and hit the wheel with it. It dug in and started making the black stuff you get when you polish aluminum. Total of maybe ten minutes, if that. I cleaned that away with some mineral spirits and finally rinsed and dried the whole thing off. End result was pretty shiny for not much work. There's still some clear coat along the edges where I was having a hard time getting in with the big buffer pad. I might try those places by hand tomorrow.

[FELLENLONG]

Re polishing Svo stock wheels

StefRobrts - Where can i get that polishing stuff you used?? The wheel looks great. Let me know PLEASE!!

[StefRobrts]

It's sold in motorcycle shops and truck stops. You can buy it online too. I've heard it might be the same stuff as White Diamonds, which is also supposed to be really good.

[FELLENLONG]

Re Polished wheels

Thanks for the info. I will try to find some of the Southern Shine polish and try it out. Thanks!!

[cometcyclonemk]

I did the same thing diesel did - the wet sanding route. Lots of time in the wheels, but after going through all the grits up to 2000 and polishing with "heavy metal" polish (sold at les schwab stores) the end result was an almost mirror like finish. You'll need to polish them about twice a year to keep that super shiny finish but its worth it. I used acitone to remove the clear coat, but learned the hard way that it removes the paint in the slots too...

[StefRobrts]

I am going to try a new POR-15 product called Glisten which is a clear coat for polished metal. Supposedly you can brush it on and it will level out and the brush marks dissapear. If it's as tough as the regular POR-15, then I won't have to worry about re-polishing every year. I'm going to order some in the next week or so and give it a try, and I'll let everyone know how it goes.

[diesel]

like i said they are not done but...also bad pic

[kennycoulter]

im interested in this, and was considering it either this winter, or spring....by polishing once a year, do you guys mean to go through all the grits again? or just to really rub some nevr dull on? what if i dont drive the car often, and i were to polish mine and nevr dull them once every 2-4 weeks? i want to know more of the por15 product!

[diesel]

maybe this pic is better

[cometcyclonemk]

You only need to go through the sanding once, just use a good metal polish every now and then. Some polishes have a something in them that protects the wheel longer (my uncles sell Met-All at their aircraft buisness and it does this) but they dont seem to polish as well. Haven't tried it, but waxing would probably reduce the frequency of polishing also.

[StefRobrts]

From what I've heard on the airstream forum, where they spend a LOT of time fussing over polishing their Airstream Trailers, you get a much finer shine by going through the different grits of wetsanding and polishes, like Rolite or Nuvite polishes which come in different grits. PerfectPolish.com has a lot of info on trailer and airplane polishing. It's all aluminum, so it's the same process.

The polishing I did with the Southern Shine is not a mirror finish, but it's a really good result for a small amount of effort.

Once you get your shine on, protecting and maintaining it regularly is the key to not having to go through all the grits again.