My Wheel Polishing Fetish :P

[duncanmartin]

Would these be suitable for polishing up with the angle grinder pads?


I have a bunch of newbie questions (sorry if they are dumb):
If you don't clean them as often as you should, can the alloy get damaged by the water/salt etc, or will it just affect the surface?
How do you stop brake dust stickig and corroding on the wheel?
Is it worth cleaning/polishing the inside of the rim? A shiny face but grubby inside will look wierd, but it's bound to get dirty in no time and it's impossible to get at with the wheels on the car.

Cheers
Duncan

[borednow]

With polished wheels you have to clean them regularly otherwise they will get corroded again.
So a weekly regime of cleaning with water and car shampoo (don't use a wheel cleaner unless it's designed for polished wheels, ie Autoglyms Custom wheel cleaner), a polish with a good quality polish and then use a wheel sealer on them too. Poorboys do an excellent one which I use on my daily avensis which does 1000 miles a week and gets cleaned not often enough and my wheels come up great.
Motorgeek (www.motorgeek.co.uk) are very good for stuff and this is what you need:

www.motorgeek.co.uk/poorboys-wheel-sealant-sizes-p-165.html

As for the inside of the wheel I always paint it if it's too dirty or corroded. Can look good if you do it in an accent to your car!

[duncanmartin]

Thanks for the info and link.
The car is white, so painting the inside to match would probably be ineffective. Silver or black is probably the answer. I need to find a 4th wheel before I can put them on the car anyway.
Cheers
Duncan

[ratta]

Jan 16, 2011 12:19:10 GMT duncanmartin said:

Would these be suitable for polishing up with the angle grinder pads?


I have a bunch of newbie questions (sorry if they are dumb):
If you don't clean them as often as you should, can the alloy get damaged by the water/salt etc, or will it just affect the surface?
How do you stop brake dust stickig and corroding on the wheel?
Is it worth cleaning/polishing the inside of the rim? A shiny face but grubby inside will look wierd, but it's bound to get dirty in no time and it's impossible to get at with the wheels on the car.

Cheers
Duncan

Oh there perfic for my pads pm me if you want some

[duncanmartin]

Jan 16, 2011 14:12:14 GMT ratta said:

Oh there perfic for my pads pm me if you want some

Obviously it depends on user skill, tools etc, but how long do you think it would take a newbie to polish a wheel from the condition above to decently shiny?
Cheers
Duncan

[ratta]

Jan 16, 2011 14:16:18 GMT duncanmartin said:

Jan 16, 2011 14:12:14 GMT ratta said:

Oh there perfic for my pads pm me if you want some

Obviously it depends on user skill, tools etc, but how long do you think it would take a newbie to polish a wheel from the condition above to decently shiny?
Cheers
Duncan

4 a newbie it would prob take about 2days todo all 4 with my discs.

Ebay drill kit about 6months

[ratta]

Just given the mags abit of a go over



;D

[morns]

Ratta...is this car parked in V&J bikes often....i'm sure i recognise it?!
Great work on the wheels by the way, they look amazing, i fancy doing it to mine....... one day.......!

[ratta]

Ye i worked at V&J for 10yrs

don't work there anymore iv got a sweet new job with one industries ;D

www.oneindustries.com/

Sent out a few kits now so if anyone has some pics of there work please put em up

[borednow]

Got me pads yesterday cheers Ratta. Looks like I'll be spending the weekend in the garage.

The mrs won't be happy supposed to be painting the hallway

Pics up when finished

[borednow]

Well despite the rain and the garage being chock full at the mo I finally managed to get some time to have a go....

Before:


After the first go with the sanding disc:



After the brown compound




Completey mullered one of the buffing discs at this point. Must remember do not try to use all of it and do lots of spokes together!
I reckon if I'd stuck to just using the edge of the disc on each spoke individually it would have been ok.
Oh well live and learn ;D

After final stage. This is complete with Megs Car Polish followed by Megs Nxt Generation Chrome Polish




cos there is currently a TV cabinet in the way of my polishing cloths drawer I used a yellow duster for the final polishing by hand. Unortunately this has left the micro scratch's. Doh.

But this was down to me and not Ratta's method. I found I needed the dremel to get into the tight spaces between the lip and the spokes.
But that being said I have never used an angle grinder until today and after going and buying one and then trying out this system I am defintely impressed.
To go from the state of that wheel to where it is now in a matter of 3hrs including going to buy an angle grinder is amazing!
With a bit more practice I reckon this is going to be superb. Oh and imagine the inside of the spokes black. Next job!
Cheers Ratta (PM'd about another polishing disc, doh)

[deanyboy]

Hi Ratta,

Looking at doing this to my newly aquired TT comps (see pictures). What would I need to bring the faces up on these? The inset sections will be painted along with the back of the alloy, just want the faces sorted. I have an angle grinder and as can be seen in the pictures there are plenty of fine scratches visible.





Let me know what I need and a price and I will get back to you,

Cheers,

Dean

[ratta]

Pm'd

Borednow those look great good work ;D

[needabeetle]

Might have to get some stuff off you soon to bring my Panasports back to life!

How good will these discs be at stripping anodisation? For some reason Panasport anodised their lips... And now they're mega crazed.

[ratta]

Feb 17, 2011 23:18:48 GMT needabeetle said:

Might have to get some stuff off you soon to bring my Panasports back to life!

How good will these discs be at stripping anodisation? For some reason Panasport anodised their lips... And now they're mega crazed.

Slap some pics up dude or PM me ;D

[ratta]

Hey every1 still gettin lots of PM's for discs n polish blocks which is great but i really need a pic to see what you want todo and what your wheels/alloy bits look like ;D

Cheers RATTA

[robwizard]

I have some ats cups which I would like to polish the rims... maybe the faces as well. Would your discs/method work for them or is it too much of a curve?

Cheers

[Deleted]

Eventually I'm going to be refurbishing these Tarantulas (set of 5). Same colour scheme but with polished faces to the spokes.

Can this be done with your system?

[ratta]

Mar 1, 2011 11:51:00 GMT robwizard said:

I have some ats cups which I would like to polish the rims... maybe the faces as well. Would your discs/method work for them or is it too much of a curve?

Cheers

I did these aluline cups ages ago (infact my 1st job)


I just had todo the last cm by hand (hard to get the angel)

Pm me

Ye those tarantulas will be easy PM me

[prc]

Here is my effort achieved completly by hand. Will finish them off with some compound and a felt mop.

Before:



Lip before:



During:



Nearly done:



Another:



That was done completely by hand. IMO you can get a much better finish taking the time to do it all by hand. Only using the felt mops on the drill to finsh them off for the extra level of bling!

I only went up to 1200 grit wet and dry there but usually go to 1500 then 2000 before the felt mops. These wheels are going on a daily so skipped the last couple of steps.

Centres will be rubbed down and painted too.