Best polish for Aluminum?
 

So I have a set of 15x7 Enkei 92's for my FB. They are quite oxidized, and am working on getting them to a mirror finish before DGRR. To give you an idea of how oxidized they are, I spent about 1 hour a day for a month to polish one portion of the lip on one of the wheels with Mothers and a rag.

I tried Mother's Powercone, and I can't get enough pressure onto the surface for the polish to work, so I've given up on Mothers for the bad oxidation.

Currently I am working with a product called Bike Magik. I picked it up from a local motorcycle shop, and so far it's been working quite well. It is taking the oxidation off of the same surface area in about 2 hours, so it's significantly better. The one issue that I have with it is that it has a pumice in it, so I'm going to have to do a final polish with something like a Mother's for a nice, mirror finish.

What I'm curious about is: What products do you guys like for polishing aluminum?

Thanks

-Jim

Simmachrome Polish. May have spelled it wrong.

I have Simichrome (sp?) and it's about the same as Mother's. It won't cut the oxidation.

From my experience, I haven't come across a polish that will quickly cut through heavy corrosion. If those wheels were clear coated, it could be that the paint is oxidizing. I would try sanding or blasting to get rid of the oxidation. If you choose to blast, be careful with what media you use, as you don't want to pit the metal and make more work for yourself. Then once you have a good metal surface to work with, start sanding again while working your way up through the finer grits. Once you feel that it's smooth enough, then start polishing. That Mother's polish works really well and is my first choice, but only if you're using it on a clean surface. Just my 2 cents

If your going to blast the surfaces of the wheel, you should look into soda blasting, it is ultra fine media, won't cut into the wheels, and leaves a beautiful finish when completed. and if you want a deeper shine after the wheels are blasted, I would use jewelers rouge, I watched the operator blast the paint finish off of a pepsi can, and leave the surface of the metal smoother than glass. Hope it helps.

Pictures would be really helpful. I am in the process of resurfacing a set of 3 peice mesh wheels. The lips are heavily oxidized and I am not even going to try to polish it out. I am going to do a test section to determine if there is clear coat over the aluminum. I am pretty sure that there is clearcoat overtop as when I use a wadding compound I am not getting the black polish marks I usually get on standard aluminum wheels. What I have done in the past is mask the painted section, then use aircraft paint remover or oven cleaner to strip the clear off the lip. This is pretty scary as the wheels will soon oxidize worse then before. But the clear coat will be all gone. (turns yellow and peels off)

You will then need to use a light sandpaper (like a 2000 grit) to knock off the chalky residue. If that isnt getting it then I typically use a wire wheel to smooth it out. (or steel wool)..

I progressively get to a 3000 grit paper, and then polish the wheel with mothers,then never dull, and then wax the wheel.

I have my work cut out for me too..

https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1297651373
https://www.rx7club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1297651461

Most wheels come from factory with a clear coat if you want to polish the aluminum underneath it you will have to remove the clear coat. Start with 800 grit and sand it wet, gradually go up in grit until the final sanding is with 2k grit keep the water flowing while sanding and go in one direction. Once done i use a product called nevr-dull it's in a silver can and start polishing with that. The end result should be a mirror shine.

Once the clear coat has been removed you are going to have to clean the wheels every week to keep them shiny.

Try autosol

https://www.autosol.com/shop/category/metal-care/

i have a tube of the general metal polish and it is crazy. works on pretty much everything i have ever needed to polish (including headlights) and i have yet to finish my tube, a little goes a long way (never polished rims with it though)

http://thepolishguy.com/2008/10/26/4...-metal-polish/

They do not have a clearcoat. I'll put up pics tonight. I picked up Blue Magic this weekend, and am going to give that a try next.

Alright just wetsand it with 2k grit then polish it up. It should only take about 2 hours to do all wheels there is no need for some special polish.

http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...7/IMG_0069.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...7/IMG_0070.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...7/IMG_0073.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...7/IMG_0075.jpg
http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/i...7/IMG_0074.jpg

You can see oxidation vs. Mothers.

Wenol is really good stuff. Used it plenty of times.

GD

Good stuff.

Having been around British motorcycles since I was a kid, I've used plenty of different aluminum polishes. Wenol is hands down the best stuff I've ever used. I have had to discard pictures of bikes because the reflection on the aluminum washed out the entire picture.

If you have bad pitting don't be afraid to hit it with coarser sand paper. Polishing metal is just like sanding wood it just takes different machines.

I've started with 240 wet doing some aluminum on my Austin Healey and even a file on some cast stuff.

I got over doing stuff by hand pretty quickly and bought a 1hp 1800rpm Baldor buffing machine. The thing spins 12" buffing wheels with ease and doesn't slow down when you lean on it a little.

So what did u use mothers polish?

I've had really good luck with Flitz:
http://www.flitz.com/p-16-flitz-polish-paste.aspx

never dull

I've used lots of stuff if its not bad, and can bepolished by hand then never dull. If its pretty dirty and oxidized I'd say something that's paste based like mothers with a dremel or some polishing kit, then maybe follow up with never dull.