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DIY: Polish your factory wheels, $70 each.....

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Old 08-28-2004 | 09:42 PM
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DIY: Polish your factory wheels, $70 each.....

Bought 4 'kerbed' stock painted rims on ebay, about $60 each....
.
Taught myself to polish, bought supplies, about $40.....
.
A set of polished rims that YOU buffed to a mirror finish......Priceless! :D
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-fini.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 09:44 PM
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Rough....

The stock damaged wheels....
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-kerbed.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 09:45 PM
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Stripped.....

Paint stripper.......
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-strip.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 09:47 PM
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Sanded.....

Terribly rough, have to sand them down, A LOT!
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-sand.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 09:48 PM
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Steel wool....

A good rub down with the fine steel wool.....
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-wool.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 09:49 PM
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Buffage....

Heavy buffing with an air grinder and polishing compound.....
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-buffer.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 09:51 PM
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Beauty starts to show thru....

After some buffing the results start to show.... :D
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-before-after.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 09:54 PM
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Talking Finito......

Sorry I can't post a nice sunny full car picture, the weather won't cooperate, but you all know how the polished rims look. here is a pitiful flash picture, taken in the garage, but you can imagine the rest! :D :D :D :D

S
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-fini.jpg  
Old 08-28-2004 | 10:02 PM
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How did you fix the curb rash??
Old 08-28-2004 | 10:42 PM
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Wink Kerb rash.....

The kerb rash vanishes as soon as Mr. Sander makes an appearance!

Two swipes with the sander or an '80 grit' flapper wheel will obliterate any traces of grinding on concrete. Since the wheel is now unpainted, that's all the treatment it needs.

S

Last edited by StealthTL; 03-18-2005 at 03:44 PM.
Old 08-28-2004 | 11:37 PM
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Nice job. :D How much time did it take and what are you going to use to protect from rust?
Old 08-28-2004 | 11:54 PM
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Originally Posted by ezrider55
Nice job. :D How much time did it take and what are you going to use to protect from rust?
rust? it's aluminum alloy
Old 08-29-2004 | 12:24 AM
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Originally Posted by truemagellen
rust? it's aluminum alloy
Aluminum may not rust but it will corrode. Aluminum corrosion appears as pitting and gradually produces a grey powder/haze that can only be cleaned with extensive buffing. Without a clearcoat or clear powdercoat you will have trouble keeping them shiny very soon. I would highly reccommend the powdercoat as it will be more durable. Just a suggestion, looks nice though!
Old 08-30-2004 | 08:27 PM
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Nice job, as for the powdercoating Eastwood has a inexpensive powercoat setup. just need a oven that can used to "bake" the rims in. Preferrably NOT the one in the kitchen.
Old 09-01-2004 | 09:24 AM
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Very, very nice DIY, Stealth! One suggestion though... you might want to consider clearcoating them.
Old 09-02-2004 | 02:08 AM
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you can try putting on some alum sealant to wick off moisture and block out brake dust.
Old 02-21-2005 | 12:35 AM
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How are your rims holding up? I might do this.
Old 02-21-2005 | 09:39 PM
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Originally Posted by Omicron
you might want to consider clearcoating them.
Is there an echo in here?
Old 10-08-2005 | 11:53 PM
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Hey, StealthTL - how long did this take you?

-Kabong
Old 01-26-2006 | 10:46 AM
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how they holding up???

got a sander and some metal polish ready to rock!
Old 01-26-2006 | 04:34 PM
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Arrow Well....

They are in storage now for the Canadian winter - got my 17"snowboots on!

They held up very well, better than I expected, none had any tarnish or surface corrosion, they just got dull, a tiny bit powdery on the surface. I gave them a quick polish before storage at Halloween, and that brought out my only problem- I had waxed one front wheel, and put a coat of clear polyurethane on the other as an experiment. They both dulled about the same amount, the caoted one was indistinguishable from the waxed - until it came time for the repolish!

The waxed one got washed and buffed, came back to its original gleam, but there was NO WAY to clean up the coated one! I first had to remove ALL the clear with some really nasty solvents (my usual acetone and toluene wouldn't touch it, hexane and methylene chloride just clouded the finish, I ended up using methylene dichloride gel - especially icky since it was supposed to be a quick buff, so the rubber is still on the rims!) I won't make that mistake again!

If you want them to be low maintenance, powder coating clear is the only way to go.

This is the best pic I could get in my shed, but they don't shine until the sun hits them, which may be some time in lat APRIL!

S
Attached Thumbnails DIY: Polish your factory wheels,  each.....-slice.jpg  
Old 01-26-2006 | 10:25 PM
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I was just thinking about polishing my wheels the other day, and I thought I'd check this post again but I couldn't find it in the search engine. I think it was because I searched for polishing stock wheels and not factory wheels.

Anyways, Stealth, I was just wondering what tools/compounds you used to do this. I suppose you polish just the inside part of the wheel that's visible, right? And you had to work the hard to reach areas by hand? Also, how do you work on the little dimples that come two on each spoke?
Old 01-29-2006 | 09:34 AM
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How does the shine hold up over time?
Old 04-12-2006 | 10:52 PM
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shine holds up decently. I had a local shop Wheel Techniques do the hard work, getting them polished out to a mirror finish ($750). From there, every few months, I whip out some MOTHERS polish and polishing ball (goes on drill) and about an hour later, good as new. Key is to wash the rims with DAWN dishwashing liquid. Gets silverwear nice and clean and also happens to work well on polished rims. Just dont use DAWN on your car as it will strip wax.
Old 04-12-2006 | 11:17 PM
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Awesome!!!


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