Bought 4 'kerbed' stock painted rims on ebay, about $60 each.... :)
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Taught myself to polish, bought supplies, about $40..... :cool:
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A set of polished rims that YOU buffed to a mirror finish......Priceless! :D

The stock damaged wheels....

Paint stripper.......

Terribly rough, have to sand them down, A LOT! :(

A good rub down with the fine steel wool.....

Heavy buffing with an air grinder and polishing compound.....

After some buffing the results start to show.... :D

Sorry I can't post a nice sunny full car picture, the weather won't cooperate, but you all know how the polished rims look. here is a pitiful flash picture, taken in the garage, but you can imagine the rest! :D :D :D :D

S

How did you fix the curb rash??

The kerb rash vanishes as soon as Mr. Sander makes an apppearance!

Two swipes with the sander or an '80 grit' flapper wheel will obliterate any traces of grinding on concrete. Since the wheel is now unpainted, that's all the treatment it needs.

S

Nice job. :D How much time did it take and what are you going to use to protect from rust?

Nice job. :D How much time did it take and what are you going to use to protect from rust?

rust? it's aluminum alloy

rust? it's aluminum alloy

Aluminum may not rust but it will corrode. Aluminum corrosion appears as pitting and gradually produces a grey powder/haze that can only be cleaned with extensive buffing. Without a clearcoat or clear powdercoat you will have trouble keeping them shiny very soon. I would highly reccommend the powdercoat as it will be more durable. Just a suggestion, looks nice though!

Nice job, as for the powdercoating Eastwood has a inexpensive powercoat setup. just need a oven that can used to "bake" the rims in. Preferrably NOT the one in the kitchen.

Very, very nice DIY, Stealth! One suggestion though... you might want to consider clearcoating them.

you can try putting on some alum sealant to wick off moisture and block out brake dust.

How are your rims holding up? I might do this.

you might want to consider clearcoating them.

Is there an echo in here?

Hey, StealthTL - how long did this take you?

-Kabong

how they holding up???

got a sander and some metal polish ready to rock!

They are in storage now for the Canadian winter - got my 17"snowboots on!

They held up very well, better than I expected, none had any tarnish or surface corrosion, they just got dull, a tiny bit powdery on the surface. I gave them a quick polish before storage at Halloween, and that brought out my only problem- I had waxed one front wheel, and put a coat of clear polyurethane on the other as an experiment. They both dulled about the same amount, the caoted one was indistinguishable from the waxed - until it came time for the repolish!

The waxed one got washed and buffed, came back to its original gleam, but there was NO WAY to clean up the coated one! I first had to remove ALL the clear with some really nasty solvents (my usual acetone and toluene wouldn't touch it, hexane and methylene chloride just clouded the finish, I ended up using methylene dichloride gel - especially icky since it was supposed to be a quick buff, so the rubber is still on the rims!) I won't make that mistake again!

If you want them to be low maintenance, powder coating clear is the only way to go.

This is the best pic I could get in my shed, but they don't shine until the sun hits them, which may be some time in lat APRIL! :mdrmed:

S

I was just thinking about polishing my wheels the other day, and I thought I'd check this post again but I couldn't find it in the search engine. I think it was because I searched for polishing stock wheels and not factory wheels.

Anyways, Stealth, I was just wondering what tools/compounds you used to do this. I suppose you polish just the inside part of the wheel that's visible, right? And you had to work the hard to reach areas by hand? Also, how do you work on the little dimples that come two on each spoke?

How does the shine hold up over time?

shine holds up decently. I had a local shop Wheel Techniques do the hard work, getting them polished out to a mirror finish ($750). From there, every few months, I whip out some MOTHERS polish and polishing ball (goes on drill) and about an hour later, good as new. Key is to wash the rims with DAWN dishwashing liquid. Gets silverwear nice and clean and also happens to work well on polished rims. Just dont use DAWN on your car as it will strip wax.

Awesome!!!

yo stealth its april already!!...wuz up with the car still shines?.....let us see some complete pictures of ur mod so we can decide on doing it or not.. :mdrmed:

I wonder if a colored anodizing would take on these....

yo stealth its april already!!...wuz up with the car still shines?.....let us see some complete pictures of ur mod so we can decide on doing it or not.. :mdrmed:

StealthTL lives "Way North" and hasn't had a nice weather day since Aug 2004 :mdrmed:

dude i like this mod....i miss my chrome oems so thisll have to do!!! nice job

i have this same mod.. from previous owner.. brasso works really nice to shine them up.. unfortunately he curbed the holy hell out of them along it.. like all 4 wheels.. i'm thinking he took the tires off and just drove like that..

I would polish them up then get a shop to clear coat them. Wont have to worry about losing your shine as much.

They are in storage now for the Canadian winter - got my 17"snowboots on!

They held up very well, better than I expected, none had any tarnish or surface corrosion, they just got dull, a tiny bit powdery on the surface. I gave them a quick polish before storage at Halloween, and that brought out my only problem- I had waxed one front wheel, and put a coat of clear polyurethane on the other as an experiment. They both dulled about the same amount, the caoted one was indistinguishable from the waxed - until it came time for the repolish!

The waxed one got washed and buffed, came back to its original gleam, but there was NO WAY to clean up the coated one! I first had to remove ALL the clear with some really nasty solvents (my usual acetone and toluene wouldn't touch it, hexane and methylene chloride just clouded the finish, I ended up using methylene dichloride gel - especially icky since it was supposed to be a quick buff, so the rubber is still on the rims!) I won't make that mistake again!

If you want them to be low maintenance, powder coating clear is the only way to go.

This is the best pic I could get in my shed, but they don't shine until the sun hits them, which may be some time in lat APRIL! :mdrmed:

S

may i ask where you found your hexane? :)

I would polish them up then get a shop to clear coat them. Wont have to worry about losing your shine as much.

Yes, you need a clear coat. It will remove some of the shine, but no corrosion.

If you put more effort into it... you can get them to shine more than chrome.

I was thinking about doing this and so I will. Great job. It just sucks that I will have to do this all by hand

i tried waxing mine about a month ago when i claybarred.. my wheels still look great.. it even keeps brake dust away.. i'll post pics up later

well, I got 1 rim done perfect, stealth, I had a question. what did you use to get into the very corners of the spokes? a dremel? I Used a orbital sander starting with 80 grit, then moved up to 120 grit.. I used my dremel with a 120 grit flapper to get inside of the center and nut area. and dremel with 80 grit to get in the very corners of the spokes since they are such an odd area. after all that I hit it with 320 wet, 600 wet, and 1000 wet. and then used some mothers.. so far 1 rim done, looking mirror fine. I suggest an orbital sander, I tried one of those square ones, and it was Terrible!, orbital tore through. what a pain it was getting rid of all the casting as well.. ;)

wow. sweet

http://www.rx8club.com/showthread.php?p=2821142#post2821142

Looking so far so good! :) only 2 more rims to go :P

you would of had a better finish if you sanded the wheels with higher grit sandpaper instead of steel wool.

I sanded my old enkei racing s wheels to a mirror finish using sand paper alone. 320 grit then 400 grit, then 600, 800, 1000, 1500, and finally 2000. The lip had a mirror finish with no irregularities to the finish.

Yeah, I think I'm going to go over it again with 2000 grit and then mothers.

for curb rash fix. would i need to strip paint, or can i just start sanding?

(i want to prep up rims b4 taking to powder coater)

I guess it matters what you want to do.. if you want to polish those anniversary wheels.. you'll want to strip all the paint off. first.. then start polishing from there.. i'd personally strip the paint, then sand out that rash.. then repaint the rims with those..

I guess it matters what you want to do.. if you want to polish those anniversary wheels.. you'll want to strip all the paint off. first.. then start polishing from there.. i'd personally strip the paint, then sand out that rash.. then repaint the rims with those..

i;m not polishing anything. i just want to prep some wheels before i take to the powder coater (im buying used oem ones) would i still have to strip paint before i sand?

ty! btw!