Wheel Polishing

[dbrun]

Foose wheels had been sitting in shop for a while, covered in overspray, oxidized, and dull.

A couple of wheels had some pitting, but overall they turned out pretty well.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Nice save on some very cool wheels.

What brand of polish did you use? All hand applied or machine?



Mike

 

[dbrun]

What brand of polish did you use? All hand applied or machine?

Optimum Metal polish on a 2” air sander/polisher I bought at harbor freight years ago.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Optimum Metal polish on a 2” air sander/polisher I bought at harbor freight years ago.

Awesome. One thing for sure, when it comes to polishing oxidized aluminum, especially severely neglected aluminum, anything you can do by machine will make he job faster and easier and in most cases, deliver better results.


Mike

 

[Dsholes78]

My latest Aluminum Adventure…

 

[dbrun]

Looks good, what was your process? Polishing wheels can be a job.

 

[Dsholes78]

Looks good, what was your process? Polishing wheels can be a job.

Thank you,
Bare Aluminum so I started by washing them with 100% “Aluminum Brightener” (Acid) and scrubbing with a Brown Scotch Brite or 000 Steel Wool. Then start with an 8” Yellow Airway Wheel and Brown Rouge bar on a Rotary at about 3500 RPM. Then only an 8” Green Airway Wheel and Green Rouge Bar on a Rotary at about 3500 RPM. For that stuff I prefer Zephyr products.
From there I’ll polish by hand with a good Aluminum Polish. White Diamond, Renegade, Zephry Pro 40, etc.
If possible I’ll also use a polishing ball similar to a Mothers Power Ball with any of the above polishes. Mike recently did a write up on some of the different Polishing balls / cones.
Takes a lot of patience…

 

[Karl_in_Chicago]

My latest Aluminum Adventure…

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Great job! The wheels in the "before" pics look like some project vehicle's on "Roadworthy Rescues", I would have never thought they could be restored to that level. That's a real sweet TJ.