Best way to polish aluminum mags?

I have a set of slots i would like to really polish up, what would be the best way to do this, i want a mirror or pretty close to mirror, i know they are gonna need some sanding.

 

varying gardes of wet sandpaper working your way fron coarse to fine. then once you get it smooth with the sandpaper you need to use a couple of different grades of aluminium polish(i use "mothers" coarse mag polish then a product called "the purple metal polish")

 

Lots of Never Dull !!!

 

and elbow grease

 

This isn't easy, it takes dedication and commitment to do it this way.......
Take them to a metal polishers.

Then again maybe thats the easy way out?

Doc.

 

http://master-formula.com/Metal%20Polish.htm

their ad looks a bit cheesy , but i saw some at a swap meet and purchased it , its the best polish ive tried so far

 

There is not a product on the market today that straight out of the bottle that magically polishes older wheels,most of that crap is just for dirty wheels that need little to no work.It takes alot of time,elbow grease and commitment but its worth it ..

 

Here's a tech thread I did about polishing aluminum valve covers. The steps for wheels is the same- start with sandpaper, then progress sequentially through finer grits, then buffing wheels/compounds. The most important thing is to NEVER transition to the next finer grit until you've removed ALL the scratches with the grit you're currently using.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=97179

Hope this helps.

 

Take the tires off, mount them on the rear.Jack up your car,crank it up,put it in gear and run it up to about 30mph while you sit at the wheel with Emory cloth and polish it like its on a lathe.
I said this as a joke but I would bet someone has tried it before......you know, the guy with the fingers missing.....

 

Don, I have done it this way, without even dismounting!
I was doing slot wheels with the valve stem in one of the slots.
Provided you go a lot slower and are aware of the dangers, it can be done!

 

Try one of those places that media blast. There are also places with vibratory polishers. Large versions of the ones used to polish ammunition cases. I saw one a guy built with an axle stuck through the bottom of a barrel that sat at about a 45 degree angle and turned slowly. He used walnut shells and baking soda in it.

 

I took mine to a professional metal polisher. It came out like chrome. Once a month with Mother's Billet Polish after that.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rl5c7Ih2GW4

 

Send 'em here or buy their polishing machine.


http://www.wheelpolishspecialist.com/

 

Hmmmm very interesting, i think i need to just spend a few afternoons wet sanding, then use my drill with various cones, and different compounds, thanks for the help everyone if worse comes to worse ill just take em to the polishers.

 

Owner-operated truckers take great pride in making their rigs shine. Go to your local truck stop, most of them carry top quality aluminium polishing products.

-DV

 

That's the way I do it. Not the easy way out, it is the financially responsible way out. The polisher charges 1/4 of my labor rate. My time ain't free.

 

mount wheel on rear axle. spin like on a lath, you can even use file to remove nicks etc on the rim. use a buffer also as wheel spins.

 

In the long run ,you'll be better off taking them to a professional polisher. They have the equipment and knowledge. If it was easy everybody would be doing it.

 

Try and get all your scratches going in the same direction I.E. Don't sand for awhile on one direction then sand crosswise.

 

Wetsanding with various grits, working your way finer. Then follow up with some good metal polish.

You can use the Wizards Metal Polish or Metal Renew.



Then follow it up with the Wizards Power Seal to protect against future corrosion.


You can apply our products by hand with a little elbow grease or check out our Metal Buffs that chuck up in your drill.


See my signature for a HAMB discount too!

 

If you can afford to have a pro do the wheels - deffinetly go that way. Then do all follow up polishing with Mothers billet polish. It has no cleaners in it that will scratch and really makes billet shine. This stuff made my American mags look like chrome.

 

I've ALWAYS used Mother's Aluminum/Billet Polish on all my cars...works perfectly.

JK www.legends.thewwbc.net

 

Got a Mother's Power Ball as a gift. Looked at it and thought "POS gimmick", but I'll try it.....Works GREAT!! Very durable too.

 

Polishing wheels is not hard but very boring. I start out at 220 grit or so depending on the scratched, dings then move up in every grit increment.

Friendly trick.
If you start out at 220 then go to say 400 the 400 is not able to remove the 220's sanding scratches so you have to make sure to use the 280, 320 etc in between. I go all the way up to 1500 grit. Then I polish with 3 different compounds on the buffer.

I might take 6 months to do a set of wheels. I'll do 1-2 different grits then give up for a while until I have nothing to do. 2-3 hours per week is the max I can do.
The last set of wheels they turned out like chrome.

The second trick is too have the correct HP buffer and at the correct speed. Too fast it get's hot and you can "burn" the wheels.

A guy I know sent his wheels to a professional buffer and on one edge of the slot kidney shaped holes the edge was rounded due to the automatic buffing machine. My friend was not happy. The guy ruined the wheels.

 

Well there's a debate, i have a set of American Racing tto's there brand new need a little polishing but nothing major, i can run those on my car or the slots, there both 15x4.5 and 15x8.5, but also i have another set in my other garage in hebbronville there tto rears and some kind of cragar aluminum wheels for the front, i mean they look exactly like the torque thrust originals, but there stamped on the back cragar, the rears a 15x8.5, and the cragar fronts i think are like 15x6 or 5.5 there a little wider then the runners i have, either way im going to be polishing wheels

 

Words of wisdom,,,pay attention !

 

how much do they usually charge?

 

I have some 15x8.5 Slots on my Pick up, They were Super Nasty when I got them.

Took them to the Polisher & for $200.00 they were DONE.

Lotsa comments on them & they Look Great, Easy to keep up after a Profesional Polish Job.

Or you can spend 4 or 5 days sanding & Polishing yourself.

 

Not all aluminum wheels are the same. Some wheel companies used better aluminum than others so the shine on your wheels may not be what you hoped for. If you got alot of time to kill, I would say do one wheel first. If your satisfied with the time it took you and your happy with the results then proceed to the next one. If your not satisfied then you could still bring the rest of your wheels to the profesional polisher. If you got a few bucks to spend then I would recomend a profesional polisher. Truck stops do have some good polishes. Truckers like shiney things too. The local truck repair shop has cheap polishes and buffing wheels and they work great! I know I can get jewelers rouge for 4 to 6 bucks for a big bar and buffing wheels are around $10