So I recently redid my gta rims. I sanding them all the way to 800grit and then polished them with a metal polished. They are super nice now. Here's a pic of before and after


Here's the after



Here's what they looked liked before.

Now after all that work I thought to myself I should really clear coat these to keep the wheels protected. Although I went and polished them and hear that clear coating polished wheels isn't good so what should I do from here so I could put a nice clear coat on them and still keep that mirror finish. Ofc after I clear coat them I'm going to sand them down up to 2000 and then buff them for a Mirror finish

 

Good job. Did you do the gold too?

 

No all I did for the gold was just scrubbed it down, and got like one of those pipe cleaners lol and cleaned the spokes.

 

I used Wizard metal polish as a last product applied.
leaves a great shine with protection left on the wheels.
just a quick touch up at wash time and they shine like new.

 

So your wheels don't have the clear coat on them?

 

no clear coat now-just a lite buff with a towel after a wash. and reapply the Wizzards when needed about every year- I am lazy that way. wizzards is hard to find locally for me, so check it out on the web.
I am sure there are other products that do the same- but I have used wizards for a long time-good stuff.
your mileage may very....

 

Did you wet sand? Did you just jump right into them with the 800 grit? Actually looking to touch my gta wheels up, quite a bit of hard dirt and grime on them.

 

They look great. I tried clearcoating a set years ago and it didn't bode well. You will probably be polishing them every other year or so now depending on how much you drive the car and how shiny you wana keep em. Rain dulls them quick.

 

Wet sanded my GTA wheels to 2000 grit, polished with Mothers Aluminum Polish. Applied a coat of Black Fire Wax from Auto Geek

 

wow Bob, your wheels make mine look like scrap lol, do you just right off the bat start off with wet sanding them with the 2000 grit or start out with a diff grit?

 

Thanks Javier..I started with 200-400-600-1000-1500-2000. It went pretty quick. About 2 hours per wheel. I done 2 on a Saturday morning, then done the other 2 Sunday. Waxed them all in about 15 min. Pretty quick.

 

Veeery nice! What do you use to clean in between the laces Bob?

 

I use several sizes of detail soft bristle brushes chucked up in my cordless drill with soapy water. just go through all the spokes. Works like a charm.

 

Good idea! I'll give it a shot. Thanks Bob!

 

Yes bob your wheels are very nice. I started with 150grit actually because the clear coat was a pain to get off and then 240,400,600,800 and then polished them. I wanted to go to 2000 but I also wanted to clear coat them but everyone here seems to say to just throw a protective polish on

 

The only problem with just polishing them is that I drive my car almost everyday. So they will be getting dirty pretty quickly and I'll have to frequently repolish them. So considering that I'm going to have to clear coat them. In the future I'm hoping to make it a show car but for now there's still a ton of work I have to do. ** I guess the only real question is can I clear coat my rims after I sanded them with 2000grit paper, like will it stick?? If so what is a good clear coat I should use for this??**

 

Wow great job they look amazing

 

I have heard good things about Sharkhide. Looks like you just wipe it on and you're good to go.

http://www.sharkhide.com/

 

Years ago when I tried the clear ran and didn't stick but I cant remember if it was a cheap clear or not. I was told strip the clear and just to polish them after so that's what ive done with them since