What's the best way to polish out ws6 rims? What products to use thanks.

 

hmm i guess nobody knows

 

I used paint stripper on mine. I then sanded the wheels with different levels of sand paper before taping off and painting the inside portion silver again. I then use mothers wheel polish on the now bare rims.
Here is a before and after photo:

I could have spent some more time sanding and gotton better results

 

eh looks okay, i would have just used something like an sos pad and then polished it with like a buffer or something a hell of alot, then done the insides in black........thats actually what i really wanna do to my stock wheels lol, or a set of ws6 wheels if i can find some cheap

 

I'm doing mine now based on
(for the outer surface)
1. Aircraft stripper
2. 320 3M wet or dry 3" disc in an 1600rpm drill gun. Get all grooves out.
3. 500 3M wet/dry same disc/gun
4. 800 3M dry with gun
5. Trizac (sp) 3M I think this is 3000 grit. Wet sand in gun
6. Rubbing compound with gun

Steps 3-6 are part of the 3M headlight restore kit (which works great on plastic headllights and the rear lenses and firebird logo BTW).


For the inner surfaces
(stripped per above)
1. 400 grit dry sand by hand
2. Acetone wipedown
2. mask outer whole rim with blue tape
3. Rustoleum spray primer / etch, 3 light coats
4. about to brush rustoleum aluminum

Pics to follow when I get the first one done.

 

Thanks for the help. I take it that the wheels look better with the inners painted black.

 

You have to use polishing rouge and a buffing wheel to get mirror like results, but only after sanding in increments up to 2000 grit

 

I was torn on that one. I painted a part of the inners black to see if I would like it and decided with the tire and the all black car that it was too much black for me. I went with the aluminum color enamel.

Also remember the back inside of the rim is clear coated and painted. I really don't want to strip all that. Even after 20+ years that is tough stuff. Maybe I'll just clean and brush that black.

 

I did my intake to 2000 grit. When I went to do the final buff (using many levels of rouge) I found I got a better finish if I went back to 1500 grit befor the rouges.

 

yeah, I think I used 1500 when I did my intake. turned out great

 

If you have a Blue Beacon truck wash nearby, go there and tell them to"brighten" your wheels. It will take everything off and leave you with bare metal to polish or leave it like it is.

 

Here is my result...

Aircraft stripper (did you notice it says "do not use on aircraft" on the can?)

Insides
400 grit prep by hand
masked with blue tape then trimmed insides with xacto
spray painted with primer / aluminum etch 3 times, 400 grit in between by hand
Remove masking
brushed Rustoleum Aluminum 3 times 400 grit by hand in between except final coat.

Surface with a 3" disc @ 1600rpm
320 dry (removes lines)
500 dry
800 dry
1500 wet
3000 Trizac wet
wax

This yields a very smooth and somewhat reflective surface but not a mirror.

About 3 hours into the wheel.

Time is your friend on this project. Especially waiting for paint to completely dry before sanding.

Sanding with the electric drill is monotonous too, best to come back rather than rush thru it.

I tried to do most of the power sanding before the painting, at the end the 1500 takes overspray off.

About a week to do this wheel.

 

That is beautiful. Can you do that to mine

 

Thanks. Not having done the rear yet I noticed from a distance in the sunlight the rear looks shinier than the front one in the pic, probably b/c of the clearcoat still on the rear. I don't trust myself putting on a rattlecan clearcoat on the front one. Maybe a painted on POR15 clear. I read here the stuff is bulletproof but expensive.

 

Not WS6 wheels, but I polished up a wheel recently. Sanded to 600 wet, then hit it with emery, tripoli, white rogue, jewelers rogue, and then mothers. I plan on going back and handsanding from 600 to 1500 to get the reflection more clear. Thats what I did to a seperate wheel in the second pic. 1500 wet before compounds.

 

Cavazos those camaro wheels look excellent. I suspect there is a lot of effort hiding behind your term "hit". Did you use a tool for those passes?
I found myself getting careless even with a drill @1600 rpm b/c its so monotonous. Not being consistent really shows too. How much time would you say to get to the first wheel results? If you used tools what attachments?

 

Yeah thanks, I like how they came out. I use a drill/buffing wheel (stiff) for the the emery, and a polisher/buffing wheel that reaches 3500 rpm for all the other compounds. Other than that a 1/4 sheet handsander and a ton of sandpaper was what I used most. Some buffing compounds and little metal polish at the end. The results with both finishes are comparable due to the help of electric tools. Actually, the closer you get to the wheel in the first pic, the cleaner the reflection gets. It looks pretty similar to the second finish, only a little less clear and sharp. Really only seperated by 3 additional stages of sanding.

I agree with the buffing wheel/drill being monotonous, which is why I take a lot of time sanding. Much of that is done with an electric sander, 180, 220, 320wet, 400wet, 600wet, 1000wet, 1500wet. I then go back over and handsand 400, 400w, 600, 600w, 1000, 1000w, 1500, 1500w. By the time I get to making the first pass with the emery on the drill/buffing wheel, I start to get a hazy reflection on the very first pass. It also cuts down A LOT on the time you spend going over and over the surface to get the initial shine clear.

I have a thread in the auto detailing and appearance tech board going over some of my experiences. The thread is "Z28 wheel polished to a mirror finish..."

 

You guys do some nice work. Can you post a detailed set of instructions from start to finish. take pictures along the way. that would be great. make it a sticky.

 

Your talking 15+ passes before you get to the emery/rouge etc?

 

I count 15, but yeah 18 if you up it to 2000 grit. Then four passes with compound and a hand polish using aluminum polish. Actually the more you hand polish, the more clear the reflection gets, so more than a couple passes.