wanted to keep the stock wheels but wanted them to shine.

before


after

 

looks good. i have the same wheels on my trans am. going to polish them for the summer

 

not to bad....I did a set of iroc wheels. I sanded them with 400 grit, then again with 800, then with 1500, then wet with 3000 grit. Then took a polishing will with mothers polish and buffed them out. Now I can shave in mine they are so shiny.

 

how did you polish them also around how long did it took you

 

it took forever lol they were in bad shape. first I started with 220 to get it flat (all the ridges and dings out) then went to 400 then 600 then 1000 and got tyerd there and stoped lol and went to compounds started with rubbing compound then to polish compound then mothers. on the second one I skipped the 1000 and it turned out the same just had to buff more. after I get the car put together I am gonna have the wheels painted the color of the car and then finish the grits to get the perfect shine. O and I dry sanded all to keep the mess down but I will wet sand the rest off the grits.

 

Using Mothers is not polishing, it's cleaning.
To polish properly, you need wheels and compounds. If done right, it will look like chrome and never need anything more than wax to keep them that way.

 

mothers is polishing in a sense its like the final buffing. but yes you are right taking mothers to a already polished piece of aluminum is not polishing. Polishing is not a easy task to do it right. there are allot of ways to polish and allot of compounds out there that a person can use and sand papers. I think the most important part is it get it as flat and smooth as you can then you can go for the shinning. I have polished a couple intakes and a couple sets of wheels for my other cars among with some other odds and end stuff but it sure is a proud accomplishment when you are done and can see your face in it. I have found that most stock aluminum wheels, intakes , etc. have ridges or castings and clear coats and so on them witch makes it a pain to polish them because all that must be removed. I think the hole goal of polishing aluminum is to get all the impurities out and off the aluminum and get it as smooth and scratch free as possible. I am by no means a expert on polishing but I have spent allot of time trying to learn lol. They make some fancy polishing equipment but I am poor lol so I go about it as cheep as I can. sand paper, drill and die grinder or drummell tool with a couple different types of polishing wheels and compounds.

 

Order a bottle of hollywoods metal polish, hollywoods1.com, teh metal polish will run ya 17 a bottle, great stuff i work at a aluminum trailer shop and i have used this stuff to repolish areas on machine polished fenders that have taken wire wheels and scratches, really amazing stuff i did the tunnel on my sled and my brother did his 900RR frame with it, great results just by hand amazing with a buffer wheel!!

Look a hell of alot better than they did!!

 

I have the same wheels on my T/A. I can't wait to put my summer wheels on.

 

I did this originally to my truck rims like 3 years and they turned out so good(and I got so many compliments) I did my T/A rims(same as yours) also....Made a huge difference on both vehicles.....Truck took about 10 hours per rim...T/A was about 6 hours each. The outter lip of the truck rims made them more difficult.

I think wetsanding would work better than dry...minimize the deep sratches?

I've also found that the trucks rims turned out slightly shinier...Used exactly the same process. Maybe different quality of alloy??

(pics don't really do them justice...but it's all I've got)

 

Hmmm.....mothers makes aluminum polish and a seperate cleaner product. I used mothers aluminum polish and a buffing wheel.

 

are you puting a top coat of some thing on them?

like shark hide
http://www.sharkhide.com/

it will make this a once and done thing... not a seasonal or few months to keep polishing them! just an idea.

b

they look *****! by the way... very nice

 

I think I will order a bottle of that hollywoods polish and try it on the last step after they get painted. I am going with a dark candy apple red for the car and I am gonna have the wheels painted to match then finish the polishing.

 

those look great man good job!

 

Wow all of you guys did a really good job on the polishing, it looks like it took some time. Have any of you tried never dull for polishing? Ive used it quite a bit on some of my projects and its really good for shinen anything metal. It just takes a lot of time to get it extrmly shiney

 

Thanks.

I did use a clear coat....I used duplicolor wheel coating. Has been holding up on the truck(which is my daily) over 2 years now.