So I bought me a Power Cone to polish my Formula wheels, and the more I polished with aluminum polish, the more yellow they get. I decided to break out some sandpaper, and unbenounced to me, they are clear coated.



Now the clear coat is gone and they shine like new pennies. So heads up, if you want wheels to shine, pull the clear coat FIRST. A 7 dollar can of stripper from Lowes took care of that minor malfunction.

 

I'd only remove the clearcoat if you are having issues with it though. Once you remove it, you have a new weekly chore of polishing!

 

I am perfectly fine with polishing. I cant stand the yellowing. Id rather polish..

 

Agreed. I've done this on many rims. If you want a mirror shine, wet sand with 400, 800, 1200, and finish with mothers aluminum polish. It will look like chrome, but takes a couple hours per wheel.

 

Yea, Im happy with not yellow and clean. I have the Power Cone and mothers Aluminum polish. In the words of Next Friday "They 10's but I keep 'em clean..."

 

You dont have to polish every week. I polish about as often as I do oil changes and I could go farther than that.

 

All depends where you live... I live near the pacific ocean. Aluminum turns white really fast here.

 

Im in Va. We just visited San Diego in June, got to experience real Mexican food, which we don't have here, and the San Diego county (Delmar) fair. We went on our honeymoon.

 

what kind of sandpaper?

 

Wet/dry paper, a plastic coffee can of water or a spray bottle is handy. The machining lines are a lot of work to get out but well worth it. Sand until your fingers are raw, then sand a little more. If the wheels have curb rash you can work it out usually, unless its deep gouges or chips.

 

you can get out machine lines out with 400grit wetsanding? Are you guys serious, or is that something everyone here reads and passes along? How long does it take to remove all the machine lines using 400wet paper?

 

I started with 220, and yes you can, it's just hours of work.About 4 per wheel.

 

That was just the first round. I did them again and got the rash and imperfections out, that was the only one I had that was close enough to show no lines.
same wheels, I just didn't like the gold on my car color

Doh! that wasnt the gold pic. lol

 

220 to remove the machine lines I can see, I actually went with 180. Good job polishing them, they look pretty sweet. I kinda did the same as you, polished a set of wheels I had more than a couple times, until I got it the way I wanted. Who am i kidding?...I'm still messing with 'em.

I tried a lot of different ways, but ended up with 180, 220, 320, 400, 400wet, 600wet, then polishing compounds on buffing wheels. That gave me my best finish. I'm now working on painting the insides and inserts a charcol grey instead of satin black, so they get polished one more time. A few more things I'd like to try, pretty sure I can get it better.

 

Thanks, they actually look like crap there. That was just after paint and they had residue from the masking tape on them. Wife hosed them down watering her plants between prime and painting and the tape started lifting I wasn't masking them again, took like 1 1/2 hours each.
Yours look incredible. I can sympathize with the "never satisfied" part. As I mentioned, had mine gold at first, then painted them the dark grey metallic in the pic. After seeing yours, I may just have to go one more round of polishing to make the cut LOL. I guess I'll have to break down and buy a power cone. All the love was applied to mine by hand. After all, it will be a monthly thing once the car is finished and they are mounted. They will only get better and better.
I have a thread on my doing the wheels again. Some 300 people saw it and I'm amazed not one person realized that those center caps don't exist. I had to take Chevy Cruze centers and cut them to fit inside the Iroc centers. I like the Iroc wheels, but my car is a Z. I wasn't going to badge it anywhere as one.