Polishing Advice

[leversole]

I have all the right tools, they make it look easy on Youtube!!!

What am I doing wrong? Is it because I didnt get all of the aluminum oxide off of the wheel before I tried to polish?

Is the black stuff excess polishing compound?

Should I start with a chemical wash? Sand it off?

It looks worse now than before I started!

[Timothy Maikshilo]

What I've done was, take the wheel off and with polishing disk(heavy carpet) put it to it hard then whip it while it's still damp and then use the wife's flour and rub the crap out of it to take out the black from polishing and it worked great on the rims and tanks.

[MACK MAN]

Were the wheels milled finshed when new or polished? When we do our wheels if they were polished when new,we wash with a mild acid. We don t let it sit on the wheel more than 45 sec and wash off with cold water. Then use the aluminum polish on the wheel. Also, to get the polish off real easy,let it dry get a rag and put some flour on the rag. It takes all the moisture out of the polish and makes it come off real easy.If the wheels were milled finshed wash with the acid,and than use either steel wool or 800 grit sandpaper and wet the sandpaper.After that polish as described above.Also a good way to polish them is find somebody else to do it.

AL

[rsb502]

That looks pretty rough to me, I have been polishing wheels and takns for a long time now and for a wheel with that kind of pitting the best way to do it is to start from scratch. I would start by sanding the wheel smooth either with an electric sander and some 180 or by hand, remember the key is smooth dont push on the sander let it float, then wet sand with 1000, after that dry the wheel and use a buffer with some green jewlers rouge and cut the aluminum this wil make it shine like new money, but your now done, to remove the machine marks polish by hand with any aluminum polish and after the polish drys use a clean terry cloth towell and some flour, put the flower in a bowl and just dab the towell in it then tap the excess off then iuse it to lightly buff away the dried polish. they will look brand new when your done.

below is before and after, the tanks and wheels were pitted pretty bad but they came out great.

[rsb502]

Oops missed something, dont put chemicals on your wheels, those are pitted from salt ,road grit, and acid (aluminum brightener) used to make em shiny(bright silver), the only problem is the acid eats at the surface of the wheel and over time pits it out worse so you have to use more to get em lean and shiny again and it gets worse faster, its a vicious cycle. With wheels like that I would start by sanding they are too rough to polish without a smooth surface first, sorry man its a bunch of work, or you can hire somebody I had a guy do some of mine for $25/wheel from the sanding all the way thru cause I was lazy.

[mack1928]

What I usually do when it's polished aluminum is hit it with a acid like aluminum brightener sprayed on let it sit for no more then a min then rinse with water, then u have the clean surface, then I used a cutting type polish and clean off then last I use mothers aluminum polish and it's a mirror finish every time it takes a while but it's worth it

[BKrois]

Here are some air tanks off a CL tractor. First step was to steam clean, then start to wet sand. 600-1200-2000 (wash in between each sanding). Then hit with a brown rouge bar with red wheel, clean off (use brake clean) then hit with a yellow wheel and green rouge for finish.

Before

Sanded

All done

[slpwlker]

What 84 super dog said powder works good to but flour is awsome.

[PeterMack]

Oops missed something, dont put chemicals on your wheels, those are pitted from salt ,road grit, and acid (aluminum brightener) used to make em shiny(bright silver), the only problem is the acid eats at the surface of the wheel and over time pits it out worse so you have to use more to get em lean and shiny again and it gets worse faster, its a vicious cycle. With wheels like that I would start by sanding they are too rough to polish without a smooth surface first, sorry man its a bunch of work, or you can hire somebody I had a guy do some of mine for $25/wheel from the sanding all the way thru cause I was lazy.

Right on Superdog. I have seen so many guys use acid time and time again and completely ruin there aluminum. I saw a guy by

me turn a shiny new East Genesis dump trailer white in two weeks. Just awful. Or like Mack Man said a quick rinse with acid to

clean the heavy stuff and then polish, but to many acid baths = ruined rims, tanks. A lot of guys are always looking for a quick

fix when it comes to polishing but the truth is, it is just hard work and elbow grease.

[storkmack]

A lot of guys are always looking for a quick

fix when it comes to polishing but the truth is, it is just hard work and elbow grease.

That pretty much sums it up. -Brad

[slpwlker]

If you do it by hand I have used Busch's Polish. I got to say out of alot I have used that takes the cake.

[rsb502]

Best hand polish I have ever tried is Zephyr Pro 40, I usa all their products now, they make wax that is awesome on dark colors no marks whatsoever. The pro39 protectant spray(armor all) is probably the best I have ever used, do the dash once and let it soak in good then you can just wipe it off for a month and it looks fresh, and it doesnt attract dust.

https://www.zephyrpro40.com/s2/Scripts/default.asp

I have tried em all, magic mix, mothers(worst actually), billet specialties, boyds, speedy,mfx, the list goes on and on, go with a good polish and you wont work yourself to death it makes it a lot easier on your arm.

I think the results speak for themselves, all below is Zephyr Pro40 polish, Zephyr wax and Zephyr Speed-e-o-dee detailer. I have people want me to clean their trucks up all the time and turn em down I work on mine and mine only, if I waste any time on somebody elses mine go to hell fast.

[rsb502]

Sleepy, I use Busch sealer after I get mine polished, the Busch polish makes you work a bit harder than the Zephyr and I think it leaves more scuffs so I always ended up polishing twice with Busch once to get it shiny then again really light to remove the swirls. The Busch products are great stuff I have two or three bottles of the sealer in the garage right now, I think I still have some cleaner and polish too, I used to buy every kind I could find looking for the best one, the Busch guy gave me a full set last year at Mid America, by the way Im going to Mid America saturday, anybody else?

[rsb502]

slpwlker, I said sleepy just fyi! ha!

[slpwlker]

slpwlker, I said sleepy just fyi! ha!

Hell Sleepy is right. Dozed off earlier and can't seem to shake the cobwebs. Hope that means I will sleep longer then 3 hours tonight.

Hell just don't call me late for dinner and I will probably answer to most anything

[rsb502]

10-4!

[Apple dog]

As bad as those wheels are they need sanded first. You should start with a rough grit about 200 then 800. Then use jewelers rouge if sanded you should be able to use green. If you want a good shine that look like new after the green use white. You will need a varible speed grinder with polishing pads for the grinder. Dewalt work the best. It is dirty work but when you are done they look like new.

[leversole]

Thanks for all the advice! I have 400 and 800 grit discs on the way! Pictures to come!

[Vladislav]

Not shure you'd go well with discs.

They are good on flat surfaces and with low revs. Be careful.

I also worry too much applying any acid.

Mine had deep corrosion when I looked 'em up close. I mean max.close.

I had to cut off no less than 1 mm of surface with a big lathe.

Than sand them hard with 240 on a wooden block to flat waves. It took 2 working days for each one.

After 240 I made 600, 1000 and 2000 wet during 1-1.5 houres and polished with just a cloth by hand in half an hour.

Of cource I tried soft disc with green agent for a first but got black stains where I touched it. Needed too slow revs.

So continued with a piece of leather and got a bunch of little scratches.

Ended up with chrome polish and clean cloth.

And again, when I look them over up close I can see little black traces inside aluminium. Wonder what acid would do if it penetrates into

[Timothy Maikshilo]

A lot of work Vlad, it looks good. Try some flour. It has always worked for me to get all the traces out.

[rsb502]

I got into a polishing project today, my new company truck has an aluminum fuel tank that was unpolished figured id get it done while it was nice out.

[2stacksuperdog]

I started to do the rims on the front of the R-model today. Used the final polish and it came out good for not doing anything to them. They're smooth and had a little shine but look a lot better now. I used Britema, it a two type system

[BC Mack]

I got into a polishing project today, my new company truck has an aluminum fuel tank that was unpolished figured id get it done while it was nice out.

Brilliant...!!! pardon the pun...

need some advice for a newbie polisher...

my rear wheels look like they have never been polished, or, at least for 10 years. Some pitting corrosion has set in and I'm sure when I remove the wheel nuts I will find more problems..

I have used Alodine previously to remove corrosion out of pits in aluminum plate, any probs using it on truck wheel rims?

are these wheels beyond hope of ever shining again?

I have heard, but not yet seen the results of, machining a small amount of aluminum off the rim as a solution... I assume it is done within factory limits for material remaining.... anyone had this done??

added a pic of my worst wheel, hope the res is good enough to see the pitting...

advice gratefully accepted

BC Mack

[2stacksuperdog]

We got some hub pilot aluminums for our 43yr old Fruehauf that looked way worse then that and we wire wheeled then and then sanded them down. They came out pretty shiny and smooth. I'm gonna try polishing them in the next couple weeks or so

[rsb502]

I would sand em then machine polish, I think they'll come out ok, when sanding don't use force just let the sander or sand paper slide across. It takes longer than applying pressure but you don't get sanding scratches and you won't have to wet sand before machine polishing. I would start with some 200-300 then work down to 800 then hit em with some green jewelers rouge on a stiff yellow buff.