hey guys, does anybody know how to polish gslse aluminum rims at home? like what do i need to buy? i noticed that my outer lip is chrome... looks real good, but what do i do for the rest? also my paint can look real good,, but i dont know how to make it shine...what wax and or polish should i use? its almost like whatever wax i use it looks worse and worse in certain light. almost like the wax doesnt come off the car, it just builds up. any suggestions?

 

i personally use a cut and polish...

about the build up of wax.. make sure you buff it up REALLY good!

not much better than the sight of a newly polished 7 (unless its a newly painted 7.. which mine is soon to be!)

HTH

-Cheers

 

I'm in the same boat,,,,, about the wheels i've heard it's not easy, there really isn't much to do on these wheels.
i'm going to try wet sanding the machined area's and see how that turns out,,,,,,maybe ?? never wax any car in direct sun light.

 

The trick to making your car shine is to use a glaze before you wax it.

 

You've gotta strip the wheels first. Start with Poly Super Strippa (from the same people that sell Polly Filla), and a scraper. Get off as much clear coat as possible.

Then wire brush with your drill, then 120-200-400-600-1000 sand paper, followed by metal polish.

Then clear coat as much as you can. Figure 1-2 evenings per wheel.

DO NOT sand clear coat, waste of time! Strip/scrape/wire wheel it off.

 

how do you clear coat?.. how much is that Poly Super Strippa?...

 

i got all my clear coat off. im just wondering what stuff should i use to make them shine? and what is a good way to wax? or should i get it high speed buffed?

 

Look the trick is to sand away all those lines on the rim,if you look closely and feel with your finger theres small lines all over the rim.You have to sand them down,i use 400 then 600 then 1000.But you have to remove the clear coat thats on the rim,i use aircraft paint remover,it works awesome,it bubbles up the clear coat,then wash and srape whats left of it. Then sand it down.Whenever im done sanding with the 400 and do away with the lines them i start with the 600 to remove the sctaches i left with the 400,then the 1000 takes care of the rest. I use Mothers polish, you can polish some areas as you go to see your progress. Oh by the way your not gona have any fingerprints when you get done... but its worth it!!!

 

wow sandpaper? wouldnt that loook liek **** though?
sounds like it would. guess ill have to try and see. do u have pics of ur rims?

 

There is this polishing rag tht comes in a can next to the blue magic and crap at the autozone. Thats the best stuff ever . U wipe it on with the wadding cloth, and when it turns hazy, buff it off with terrycloth, unless you want to go through all the changes of removing clearcoat etc. No real shortcuts, and its alot of elbow grease, but get it right and they look great.

 

my clearcoat is off, i could of sworn there was a type of buffing wheel u just put on the end of a drill, and put a compound on the wheel and just go nuts.

 

that 1000 sandpaper gets rid of all the scratches. Sorry man no pics im not that advanced yet with a digicam.But trust me even after the 400 sandpaper use a rag and some mothers polish and youll start seeing the difference.Just try it on a small spot first once you see the shine coming out your gonna go nuts trying to finish to see the finished product.

 

suppose its worth a try, im trying to get my car looking really good so when it comes time to sell it, ill get alot.

 

use a dremel tool with the little buffing wheels that come with em and some mothers wheel polish, does an amazing job on any wheel

 

yeah i need to get a dremel tool, ill get one this weekend. how much is one of those lil things. i heard that all rotary owners need it.

 

A rotory tool like a Dremel tool works well.

I sugest the one with the flex shaft because it makes it like using a pen not near as clumsy as holding the whole tool in your hand.

There are a bunch of polishing attachements avaialable for the dremel tool when it comes time to polish. I also found that the drum sander attachement worked well for removing large chunks of matterial

 

im trying to post pics but my pics are all in jpeg format and are 5 megs! oh well. i just want to get an opinion on how much i should expect to get when i sell.

 

What he said. I used this method on my 'plus' rims, which have even more pronounced machining marks (the concentric rdges on the machined face of the wheel) than the SE rims do.


I'm currently entertaining this option on a set of 626 Turbo rims tha I have. May paint them graphite grey with polished lip, though. Either way I still have to sand the silly things...

 

Good job they look nice !!!! I painted my strips on the rim silver instead of that dark gray.

 

I ac tually painted mine black. I think in the side-on picture above the front is still original, while the rear is freshly painted. I'll have to find another 12a car to use those on, since my '79 now has the SE suspension...

 

damn so u used the sand paper meothed? i need to do that this weekend. my car will be "bling". yaay

 

Yup. Pretty much as puntorotary described above. Strip clear-coat. Sand with 400, sand with 600, (optionally) sand with 1000. Polish with a good wheel/aluminum polish. I like Flitz for a general metal polish. For these wheels, I used a "Cartier" metal polish that I picked up at an auto show, IIRC.
Lots of elbow grease involved. The sanding goes much better if you use wterproof paper and wet-sand. The paper lasts longer, and the water lubricates as well as keeping the debris out of the way.
I took the wheels off the car, one at a time, got it up high enough to work on sitting on a stool without killing my back, and went to work. Took a few days for all 4 of them, but I work slowly.

 

my rims are scratched pretty bad on the drivers side they were like that when i bought it,can the sandpaper fix that?

 

take your finger, put it in your ear, wiggle it around and then shine up your wheels real good with that handy dandy residue~

 

Well depending on how bad,but im sure once you sand them down theyll look a lot better. Lots of elbow grease you might even get a bit agravated but it will be well worth it once you see the "BLING".