Well i finally finished my second rim its not close to as shiny. I went a different way this time tho. I used a wire brush on a drill to take off the face then went to 180 to 220 to 400 then wet 600 then i used tripoli and white rouge. Now I didnt use the 400 and 600 that much and used the tripoli and rouge with same buffer piece but it did great on my lug nut covers why dont my rims look the same??????

 

I love polishing, I hate painting, do both wheels exactly the same way, that way there will be no great differences

 

Polishin takes a while but its worth it in the end...

It kinda sux doing it every winter. Over here in Germany that put so much salt down that you have to take them off.

 

dood you can't use a mechanical polishing method ... search and u'll find that everybody who polishes gets a crappy luster when they use power tools - gotta be by hand

 

logikal6785, I gotta disagree there. The top way to polish is by power tools. Buffers can speed up the process as well as felt bobs. DA sanders and even dremels when used right can aid in the process of removing cast. It's when power tools are used too strong and put deep scratches into the item that causes a problem. All people who charge to polish do it with power tools, you just have to know how to use them.

 

You gotta take your time with 400. It is the last grit that gets scratches out.

I used a dremel for one wheel, never again,it left burn marks.

 

Yep, they speed up the process and work very well if used correctly.

 

Thats only because they didn't use the right tools, or use them correctly. You could rub on a wheel til your arm fell off and never come close to generating the shine that a professional quality buffing wheel can. You have to generate heat in the part to really get the lustre to come out...you'll never do that by hand. You can maintain the shine by hand, but you can't get it initially.

 

What kinda wheel do you need for the dremel. The polish wheels that it came with are cheap. I not going to stick that thing on my rim but I have a spare intake manifold to play around with.

 

I wouldn't ever use a grit as low as you started with. I think the lowest I went was 320 and that was in only the worst spots of the wheel. If you use a numerically low grit paper you'll take away so much metal that it will look wavy.

 

redbird_400,

Not wheels for dremels, mainly sanding drums, rolls, and felt bobs. The wheels need to be used with full size buffers or atleast a drill. Something that'll turn 1800-3200 rpms is somewhat the standard. Baldor and must other buffers do this.

Dremels or die grinders should only be used to remove a cast... after that buffing wheels and felt bobs can do the rest. You could actually use them for all of it, including removing the cast. Also, dremels and die grinders when used wrong tend to cause wavy look.

 

The differences between what a hand can do and a machine can do are alot like these...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1854769029

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1852546732

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1853049007

Vs

Someone who knows what they are doing... and I can promise they used buffing wheels and such.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1852137213

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=1852786091


MikeinAz had some excellent articles on speeding up the process and of which machines (drills) and wheels and such to use.