bwefore you say anything yes i check the tech articles. but i have some questions anyways.

Am i supposed to sand the rim, THEN use stripper to take the clear coat off? and if anyone has done this, did u do the other side of the rim as well (the part that faces the car) that part of the rim on mine was BLACK from brake dust. here is the way i would do it, tell me if im right

1) use stripper to get paint and clear coat off
2) sand it, go with the machine lines
3) apply clearcoat?
4) use aluminum polish to make them shine

those are pretty basic steps, but u get the point. Also, how would i go about making it look chrome (like a mirror finish)

AND! one other question none related

what do those relays do on the driver side under the hood by the firewall, on an 84 z28 thanks for the help.

 

here is a pic of my rim by the way.

 

i wouldnt recommend using aluminum polish. use buffing compounds such as tripoli and white rouge. If you go do a search, you will see the difference between using polish and buffing compound. With the buffing compound, you will get a more 'mirror-like' finish.

this site might help if you havent already been there...

http://www.gmtips.com/3rd-degree/dox...els/wheels.htm

read it, its very informational.

 

why the hell did that guy at that website jack his car up and leave it running??? it makes no sense! why not take the tire off and leave it on the ground? and just use a buffer to do it then.

 

he spun the wheel so that he could sand it extremely easy, instead of doing it by hand.

 

so he jacked it up, turned the car on, put it in gear and let the wheel spin and just set the buffer on the wheel?

 

yep, he had the wheel spinning so he could remove the clear coat by sanding it.

 

ingenious

 

Find a place that does Media blasting and get your rims completely stripped. This is probably the most effective way to do the rims. After they are stripped start sanding with 250 grit dry. the 320 wet, then 400 wet, then buff with Tripoli buffing compound with a hard wheel then with White Rouge on a soft wheel. Youll get an awesome shine.

 

here is the process that 88blkiroc described one post up. This is my aluminum plenum extension...220 dry, 320 wet, 400 wet, then tripoli on hard sisal wheel, then white rouge on loose wheel. It gives an amazing shine.

 

2

 

does this work with any kind of wheel? I'm most likely going to do this to my stock firebird wheels..... this technique will work?

 

The technique will work for any metal for the most part. The only part that differs between metals is the harder the metal, the more steps you need to take (i.e. smaller grit jumps and more compounds). Aluminum to stainless steel... Go for it!!!

 

yeah dude, take all the clear off first. you know you have it all off when you can take your fingernail to the rim and feel the ribs in it. if you do it fast it kinda makes a zip noise like a holographic piece of paper that has 2 images on it. After you get that done the start your sanding. Trust me, it takes a long time...but the outcome is well worth it. Hope this helps.

 

Yeah I'm doing this at the moment too Hard work alright. I recommend just sanding off the laquer, the idea of having the wheel revolving is just plain stupid! Take the wheel off you will have far better access and control. The hardest stage for me was the initial sanding of the machine ridges that come with the wheels, the higher grit is easier and more satisfying. It won't look amazing until you polish it- then I stood there for about 10 mins to admire Well worth it!

 

Good job I see another person who uses the good stuff to polish as well

The spinning wheel only works on certian wheels,"something where you will always be in conctact with the part." You'll rip a finger or get hurt trying to polish the z28 rims with that technique since your hand and sand paper will not be in contact with the wheel at all times.

 

Jacking the car up and spinning the wheels to sand sounds like the dumbest thing I have possibly ever heard. Not to mention one of the most dangerous things you could do. What if a jackstand falls, whoops there goes my car, into my house, man thats going to cost some money. Thats my opinion.

Anyways, about the clearcoat, I heard many people say not to clear the wheels after you polish them, because theres nothing for it to stick to, so I didnt. The wheels still look the same after almost a year now (besides the scratches left by the carwash scrub brush, dont use any kind of scrub brush to clean them, I found out the hard way ). I personally didnt use any of the polishing compounds, but it seems like it would be faster, which would justify the price for the compounds, ie. less time spent to polish=more money to polish. Alot of people have used them here, and their polished pieces look fantastic.

Heres a pic, youve probably seen them here a thousand times before.

 

Doing this saves tons of time in sanding manually. All you have to do is hold your hand at the bottom of the rim and put it in gear. Jack stands are pretty safe, i havent ever had one fall if you place them securly in secure spots. And as far as the car going anywhere...aim away from the house, and block the wheels.

 

The only way I see it being helpfull is for the outer lip, where you can just hold the sand paper there and let the spining wheel do the work, the rest of the rim, I dont see it. Maybe you can fill me in some more. Yeah, my car has been on the jackstands more than its fare share and never fell off, but I'm still going with what I said before. Besides I'd rather have my wheel sitting on a bench in the shop and not on the car spinning in the driveway or wherever.

But thats me, do what you want.

 

that is the only place it is helpful is when doing the outer lip. the rest has to be done on the bench.

 

when you say 400 wet, what do you mean.. put water on the rim and sand it with 400 grit wet sandpaper?

also, where can i pick up this "tripoli" ****,

and when i buff it how the hell do i get into all the nooks and crannys? would a dremel work? and should i spin it slow for fast? (the buffer wheel)

 

Buy specific 320 and 400 grit WET sandpaper. I bought mine at Pep Boys, its 3M brand. You take the piece of paper your gona use and soak it in a bucket of water for a minute. Once its soaked up some water start to sand. Redip it in the water every few minutes to make sure that you keep a good layer of water on the piece being sanded.

You can buy the polish and buffer wheels from Eastwood (online) if you have time or if you want to hurry up and get to work I bought my stuff at ACE, the hardware store. They have all the stuff you need. Just ask where the buffing compounds are. There is a website someone posted a while ago about the exact procedure on how to do all this buffing. I forget what the site was but do a search for polishing rims and im sure youll find it.

 

Ahh, then whats the point? Sand from 80 to 2000, then risk screwing up the sand job when you do the rest of the rim with 80 to 2000, then you have to do the outer rim all over again, by hand. Or put it back on the car and let it spin, what a hassle.

J/K, like I said, do what you want.

 

i hope i dont **** my rims up...

 

I strongly suggest getting a wheel from a junk yard to do some practing with and to get your technique down first. Thats what I did when I decided to polish the Z28 rims.

 

good call.. maybe ill just try to do the rims on my chevette, since its only a winter car anyways.. maybe i can give it the chrome rim look.. lol

 

You guys think a rim is hard, you should polish the frame on a sportbike Doing my 00 ZX6R over the winter.

Goto sportbikes.net then go into the appearance forums to get some good tips on how to polish aluminum. I've had great success with sanding from 150-1000 then using a buffing wheel with black, green then white rouges. You can use Mothers to finish it off.

 

man there is no reason to go above 400 grit wet. From the results ive gotten so far hit it with 400 wet, the tripoli, and then white rouge. that thing looks like a mirror.

 

Yeah, theres no reason to sand past 400. Just for comparison, I did a quick job on my LT1 fuel rails. The closer one was done with 180/320 wet/400 wet then emery, tripoli, and white rouge. The further one was with 80/120/220/320/400/600/800/1000/1500/2000 wet/Mothers. As you can see, there is quite a difference. It doesn't take long to do all those steps on just a fuel rail, but on a rim it takes FOREVER. I did two of my rims the long way and will be redoing them and starting the other two with compounds soon.

Edit- I forgot to mention, I didn't use the compounds at high RPMs. All I had was a drill that only goes 400 RPMs or so, so I just put the compounds on the buffing wheels and used them by hand and still got great results. Imagine how good it would look at 4000 RPMs

 

I read somewhere that the only reason to use wet is when you are sanding paint. It is more effiecient to use dry on aluminium...

 

I've never gone above 320 grit with my da sander and 400 grit with my sanding rolls. Its imperative that you get polishing wheels and compounds to get the best look out of your parts.

 

I think using wet is a good idea because it provides lubrication for the paper and has the effect of cleaning off the material removed while sanding. This helps to prevent extra gouges and scratches in the surface from built up sanding debris. Thats my theory at least.

 

um, one more question, what is tripoli, Buffing compund?
and what is this "White rouge and red rouge" stuff

 

wow you guys really seem to know what youre doing. StngKlr, that rim looks badass!!! i want my iroc 16s to look exactally like that. where can you get all the compounds again???

 

the compunds can be picked up at almost any large hardware store. I think Ace hardware carries it (not sure), i know for sure that sears carries the compounds, and i got mine from Eastwood Company, they seem to be the best place to buy compounds at.

i also bought plastic buffing compound and did this....

 

so what are these red rouge things.. white rouge?

 

the buffing compounds work a lot like sandpaper (refer to below) the red rouge is the finest compound you can get, its used for gold and silver, and also known as jewelers rouge. You do not want to use red rouge on any of your projects because it's only meant to look good on silver and gold.

the black compound (emery) has a mild cutting behavior.
the brown compound (tripolt) has a finer cutting behavior.
the white compound (white rouge) has the finest behavior...excluding jewelers rouge.

this is the order that you will use them in when buffing aluminum:

180 grit sandpaper dry (rough)
320 grit sandpaper wet (medium)
400 grit sandpaper wet (fine)
emery buff with hard wheel (rough)
emery buff with soft wheel (rough)
tripoli buff with hard wheel (medium)
white rouge buff with soft wheel (fine)

hope this helps, any more questions just ask.

-Josh

 

well i am just about finished polisging the frame on my '02 yamaha R6 (u think polishing a wheel is hard.. u havent even begun to bitch untill u do a biek frame). i practiced on my alternator first.. now that thing is nice and shiny, so i moved onto the frame. and its going to look **** when its done. the ill do the TPI, started.. and anythign else me and my sandpaper can get ahold of... as far as what i did. i started with 80 grit(used a mouse sander) and went from 80 grit, 120, 180, to 220 grit.(no more sander.. all by hand now ) .. then i started to wet sand (with wet sandpaper) with 320 grit, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, and 1500. i liked the way it looks, but decided to go all the way and use 2000 grit. then i put mothers polish on it. but ill have to admit.. as much as i liek to do it.. ill NEVER do the bikes frame EVER again... so i hope i never lay it down..

 

I posted my polishing steps and pics a long time ago, maybe try a search if you still have questions.

 

i did i search i have read about this for a lon gtime, i just havent had the ***** to actually go out and do it.. just thought i would ask some questions.. when i do it ill just come back here and ask more. sanding it seems pretty basic, its just which copounds to use when buffing thats tricky.

 

u answered all my questions and then some. i just hope i can find this tuff around my home. i dont wanna have to order polish from the states. Thanks for all the help and the extension looks sweet to man. have u done the Plenum yet?

 

yep, next up is the runners, if i can get the damn things out without removing the fuel rails!

if you have any more questions let me know, ill be happy to help.

 

no man ithink im good. that is until i start. im doing the rims tommorow(hope) and will do them ove a week or two period. im not rushing im just gonna make her shine. first i gotta go shopping. i got quite a list.
BTW: my dads friend has a heavy duty buffer i can use :hail:

 

200, 300, 400, 600 wet, 1200 wet, 2000 wet, Tripoli on a wheel, and finished off with white rouge on a wheel.

 

Now that looks good. but i cant go that way. nothing above 400....but look at that shine...damn u man results like that can make a guy change his mind quick. oh well ive decided. i'll stickk with compounds

 

guess i'll post my rims.

i have a tech article some of you may have seen in the tech section. I didn't use sand paper.

 

Blah. All by hand.

 

where are u guys getting this tripoli and whtie rough stuff from?? is it a paint store, or a automotive store? cause i have been polishing my bike and so far am only at the 1000 grit part (im going 80, 120, 180, 220, 320, 400 wet, 600 wet, 800wet, 1000 wet, 1200 wet, 1500 wet, 2000 wet) and even at the 1000 grit part it looks hella shiney (but still cloudy) does the "cloudyness" go away after u add the polish?

 

the cloudyness will not go away if you have passed 400 grit... this may not be true as others can get it to go away but it's a lot of work. when you go past 400, the higher grit tends to glaze over the pores in the metal causing it to not come clean. this is why you start with the compounds after 400 grit.

The tripoli, white rouge, and emery can all be picked up at a local hardware store, or Sears by the drilling accesories or beside the wire wheels.

So to answer your question, yes, cloudyness goes away after you start with the compounds, but you will need to stop at 400 grit to get the better result.

 

first attempt:







Learned alot. probably come back and re do this rim since the others are already shapping up to look alot better.