Polishing rims to mirror finish!!

[fuzionz]

Disclaimer: The following is provided as a GUIDE ONLY, and neither myself nor Ozhonda take any responsibility for the outcomes of someone else doing the following. You follow these steps at your own risk!


Aim: Too polish up your rim lips to mirror finish
Required:
Sandpaper (2x150 grit, 2x240 grit, 2x400 grit, 2x800 grit, 2x1200 grit, 2x1500 grit),
Bucket
Water
Car Shampoo
Metal Polish (Autosol, Meguiar's NXT gen all metal polish, Mothers mag and aluminum polish)
Steps:
1) Give your rims a wash (a good clean) and dry
http://img864.imageshack.us/img864/810/03042011242c.jpg

2) Inspect for any damages
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/6344/03042011241.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/323/dmg002.jpg
http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/3776/dmg001.jpg

3) Grab your 150 grit sandpaper (WET SANDING) and fold it in half and cut

4) Fold one the halves and fold it in half and half again

5) Sanding time, grab your bucket of water and add some car shampoo (This way i found that the soapy water doesn't dry out and it's cleaning as you're sanding). With my rims the clear coat was going and it looked like rat shit. So i sanded the whole lip down until the clear coat is gone
http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/7843/150grit001.jpg
http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/1103/150grit002.jpg
150 grit This grit took me about 40 mins to take all the clear off

6) On to the next grit (240 grit)(WET SANDING), do step 3 and 4 again with the sandpaper.
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6696/240grit001.jpg
http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/2937/240grit003.jpg
This grit took me about 10-15 mins.

You'll start to notice that the sanding marks from the 150 grit is started to get fine, that is because the higher grit the finer the marks will be.

7) On to the next grit (400 grit)(WET SANDING), do step 3 and 4 again with the sandpaper.
http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/4742/400grit001.jpg
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7007/400grit002.jpg
This grit took me about 25 mins.

8) On to the next grit (800 grit)(WET SANDING), do step 3 and 4 again with the sandpaper.
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/2681/800grit002.jpg
This grit took me about 20 mins.

9) On to the next grit (1200 grit)(WET SANDING), do step 3 and 4 again with the sandpaper.
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/9347/1200grit001.jpg
http://img852.imageshack.us/img852/4885/1200grit002.jpg
This grit took me about 15 mins.

10) On to the next grit (1500 grit)(WET SANDING), do step 3 and 4 again with the sandpaper.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/544/1500grit001.jpg
http://img140.imageshack.us/img140/3589/1500grit002.jpg
This grit took me about 20 mins.

11) Polishing time! I tried all 3 brands to see which one came out the best.

AUTOSOL
In this part i used a small amount of polish to see how it reacts to my rims.
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/7015/03042011259.jpg
http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/7947/03042011260.jpg

Spread the polish on the lip first before you start buffing (i buffed in a circular motion)
http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/6716/03042011261.jpg

You'll notice that the cloth and the polish starts to turn black, thats how you know that it is doing it's job.
http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/7219/03042011262.jpg

12) Buff off the polish, DO NOT let it dry up because it'll be hard to buff off!
http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6153/03042011263.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/5962/03042011273.jpg
http://img826.imageshack.us/img826/4480/03042011272.jpg

MOTHERS

http://img228.imageshack.us/img228/4334/03042011267.jpg
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/2459/03042011271.jpg
http://img545.imageshack.us/img545/3779/03042011270.jpg
Not as good as Autosol

[fuzionz]

MEGUIARS

http://img138.imageshack.us/img138/1744/03042011268.jpg
http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/7479/03042011269.jpg

See the difference for yourself, the meguiars polish came out better then the other 2.


BEFORE:
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/6344/03042011241.jpg

AFTER:
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/8268/03042011275.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/4082/03042011274.jpg
http://img217.imageshack.us/img217/8303/03042011276.jpg
http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/479/22032011232.jpg

Vid of rims rolling to see the results!!

http://img848.imageshack.us/img848/8373/plz.mp4

[androo]

Very nice!!!

[DC2-PWR]

Always used Meguires metal polish tub!! So happy the picture results look good

Have you used Purple metal polish before? I heard its very good too.

Anyhoo great job! +1 rep :)

[curtis265]

zomfg that looks good! Can i do this to stock rims?

[fuzionz]

Very nice!!!

Thx mate!


Always used Meguires metal polish tub!! So happy the picture results look good

Have you used Purple metal polish before? I heard its very good too.

Anyhoo great job! +1 rep :)

Yeah i was surprised at the results myself, is the brand named Purple? Nah i havn't.

Cheers mate!


zomfg that looks good! Can i do this to stock rims?

Cheers mate, umm depends on the material of your stock wheels. I've done it on fat 5s before, just need time and heaps of patients LOL..

[dougie_504]

Looks great man and props for the comparison. I've only used Meguire's and my friends told me to use Autosol which I found to be nowhere near as good for shine. Meguire's FTW.

[0101]

Nice job !!!

[Bludger]

excellent work.

If only you had a dremal to fix up those gutter rashes. It would look 1000% better.

When you say it too you 15 mins or 25 mins on each grit.

was that for A wheel or for all 4?

[fuzionz]

Looks great man and props for the comparison. I've only used Meguire's and my friends told me to use Autosol which I found to be nowhere near as good for shine. Meguire's FTW.

Cheers mate. Yeah my mate told me to try out autosol too, so i thought might as well try all the ones i can get at supercheap.



excellent work.

If only you had a dremal to fix up those gutter rashes. It would look 1000% better.

When you say it too you 15 mins or 25 mins on each grit.

was that for A wheel or for all 4?

I was gonna do it, but wasn't game enough.. LOL
That's just the one rim.

[Red_EG4]

Very nice to see you've tried out 3 different polishes! I've only used autosol but got great results from it.
Looking forward to see how the surface reacts to the elements etc please post results :)


zomfg that looks good! Can i do this to stock rims?

what do you mean stock rims? most likely you can.

[r3ckless]

wow, looks great, will send the link to my gf so she can polish HER OWN wheels.

[Bludger]

I was gonna do it, but wasn't game enough.. LOL
That's just the one rim.
I've dremal'ed a rim before, was quite easy. Looks so much better, nearly like new and I didn't even polish it like you did.

If i did polish it, it would have looked a million dollars.

[Lukey]

when wet sanding, do you dip the paper in a bucket of water every now and then or put water on the rim?

[fuzionz]

I've dremal'ed a rim before, was quite easy. Looks so much better, nearly like new and I didn't even polish it like you did.

If i did polish it, it would have looked a million dollars.

Well i didn't want dremal the because the rashes are pretty deep and only on half of the lip, so i would've had to dremal the whole lip to make it even.



when wet sanding, do you dip the paper in a bucket of water every now and then or put water on the rim?
Dip the sandpaper in the bucket of water.

[mugen_ctr]

O_o i must try this on my rims..... the clear coat is peeling so this is the perfect answer to it :D

[lemmm]

OH GOD EYES ARE HURTING SO SHIIIIINEYYYY!!! +1rep

[r3ckless]

im actually goig to attempt this on my strut bar ... i rememebr isntalling it in a rush and my ahnds msuta been wet ... and some substance has caked onto it for 203 months .. gonna attempt it tomorrow night. Will report back tomorrow!

[r3ckless]

Finally done it with my front strut! Works a treat . I only spent 20 min on whole thing as its a front strut! But still quite a good mirror finish , not as good as op obviouslt. Used the meguiars one! Got it on special at sca also!

[fuzionz]

Finally done it with my front strut! Works a treat . I only spent 20 min on whole thing as its a front strut! But still quite a good mirror finish , not as good as op obviouslt. Used the meguiars one! Got it on special at sca also!

NICE, good to know. You got any pictures cuz?

[r3ckless]

Before:
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac138/chuck_bung/4057760c.jpg
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac138/chuck_bung/1ff17709.jpg
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac138/chuck_bung/a426f4c7.jpg
After:
http://i893.photobucket.com/albums/ac138/chuck_bung/a43a2bec.jpg
*Note the visibility of scratches still - like I said, it was a <20min job lol*

[fuzionz]

Looks good man, did you wet sand or is that straight polish?

[90LAN]

have you tried polishing the face of the rims ?

[fuzionz]

have you tried polishing the face of the rims ?

The spokes? Not on these, but i have tried it on fat fives.

[Bludger]

how dd it go?

[fuzionz]

Well i wire wheel'd the whole rim (Biggest mistake) to get the clear coat off, it looked polished as it is but there were holes and deep scratches everywhere. That would've taken ages to get it smooth again, so i decided to paint them black.

But if i did it again the way i polished up my Works, it'll prob turn out good i reckon.
I'm still deciding to paint the centre or polish it up, but if i'm gonna polish it up i'll do the inside of the rim 1st to see if it's polish-able.

[r3ckless]

Looks good man, did you wet sand or is that straight polish?

Yeah wet sand it.. 600 grit, 100grit, 1500 grit and the metal olish!

[charliebrown]

Just wondering, could i use these same steps for polishing up a muffler? Start maybe with high grit like 1200, then polish it. Last time i tried just polish with no sand and it did nothing, dunno if its cos clear coat or something.

It looks like this, wanna get it mirror finish

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/9052/20110416142240.jpg

[trism]

Nah start with like a 400, then 600 then 1000 1200 then metal Polish.

Sent from my custard cannon like Peter North.

[fuzionz]

Yeah what he said ^^ . I'm pretty sure that mufflers don't have clear coats on em, prob yours is just dirty from overtime.

[charliebrown]

Thanks guys, will hit up bunnings tomorrow :)

[dvsx]

nice write up! really want to do this with my dc2 blades but got major case of cbf lol...

[exquisit]

how long does the polish finish last bfor it goes dull etc
would it be better to clear it after its polished?

[fuzionz]

how long does the polish finish last bfor it goes dull etc
would it be better to clear it after its polished?

It's been almost 2 months since i polished them, so far it's not dull yet. But i keep em clean, i wash/dry my car and rims 3-4 times a week.

[g4orce]

Brasso works wonders.

[curtis265]

wtf wash 3 times a week?

[fuzionz]

wtf wash 3 times a week?

LMAO yeah man, gotta keep the car clean. Melb weather 4 seasons in 1 day...

[JimmyK]

If you're just doing the lip, i reccomend jacking your car up until your front wheels are just off the ground, start the car, chuck it in first, and just let the idle spin the wheels for you. sounds dodgy, but it works heaps faster.

That way, all you need to do is keep the wheel moist while you're sanding..
Obviously make sure the car won't fall or anything silly like that, so use jack stands, and a lot of caution...

[BOV]

use a sander? with 500 grade sandpaper?

[grifty]

500 grade isnt smooth enough, i would go up to 2000 if you can get your hands on some, it will produce a better result.

[90LAN]

check out this guy he did a full polish on his wheels and other parts lol

http://www.ozhonda.com/forum/showthread.php?75422-My-New-Set-Up-!!!-Eg6-B18cr-Spec-!!!&highlight=eg6+b18cr+spec

[JimmyK]

a sander is generally a random orbit, best to have all sanding marks go around the wheel, rather than small orbits everywhere. Also, depending on your wheel, you probably won't be able to get it into all the places you need to.

[euRo_noob]

LMAO yeah man, gotta keep the car clean. Melb weather 4 seasons in 1 day...

You're crazy! I didn't wash my car for about 1.5 months due to the shitty Melbourne weather.. how can you be bothered?! And I'd get my ass kicked by my parents if I was washing my car that many times... Killinz da wa7eRz.

[kimang]

what do u use to buff it off? sorry for the noobness

[tiksie]

A clean microfiber towel.

Better off getting them powder coated in chrome.. Polishing something only lasts so long..

[HONDAPOWER234]

nice thread, i guess imm gonna buy some Meguiar's polish now and get polishing.

[MIKO_OL]

Isn't if your sanding down the area, doesn't all it means is your removing your old surface and bringing up the new one?

[fuzionz]

Isn't if your sanding down the area, doesn't all it means is your removing your old surface and bringing up the new one?

Indeed!!