cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

after months and months and hours and hours of trying to get a mirror finish on a Z28 wheel, I finally reached a point I'm pretty satisfied with. The lip could have used a better sanding before I polished and I ended up shooting a bar of tripoli into the center cap, leaving a noticable dent. Other than that, I'm happy with the results. If it doesn't look as good as the other wheels I do, I can always go back later and repolish it. With lots and lots of trial and error under my belt, (mainly error) I'm confident I can do better with the remaining wheels.

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

looks great. reminds me of my old rims back in the 90's
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...s/dsc01484.jpg
http://www.cecoatings.com/images/Car...s/dsc01487.jpg

sometimes I miss the stock rims.

majobis

iTrader: (3)

Those are some of the shiniest refinished stock rims I've seen on this site. Nice work! Did you follow the standard pattern of aircraft stripper, followed by sanding with various grits and then finally some sort of polish?

camaro1122

iTrader: (1)

Those look SWEET!! Im trying to polish up my 91z wheels but after doing the first one, i kind of gave up haha. What type of paint black paint did you use on the wheels?

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Those looked good. Didn't think of polishing the inserts. Did you polish those yourself?


I pretty much followed the "polishing your wheels" sticky at the top of the message board. Basically sanded to 600, then polished with buffing compounds. Since it came with the kit I bought, I started with emery compound then proceeded to tripoli, white rogue, jewelers rouge and then a metal polish. Also instead of a drill, I used a buffer/polisher than reaches 3500 rpm.


HA, I quit at least half a dozen times when I wasn't getting the shine I wanted. When I got bored I'd go back to the garage and mess with 'em again. The paint is a satin black wheel paint. I wanna say its a rustoleum paint. I was hoping it was a little more flat to give a better contrast against the polished aluminum, but I think it's better than a gloss black.

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

yes, I did em. polished and painted.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

the polished inserts looked really good. Of course if I tried something like that, I'd want to proceed with the rest of the wheel and the grooves seem like they might be a hassel to polish. Something I might consider though. These are a second set of wheels, so I'm really in no rush to finish them up. What did you use to polish the inserts? A tapered polishing buff?

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

a few more pics.

BADNBLK

iTrader: (11)

Those turned great! Some of the best 91-92 wheels I have seen on the site.

NxtLevl

Major props--------------------....That took alot of work, and it definitely shows....

91ORANGEZ28

They look awesome!

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

looks great. Makes me miss mine even more.
I did mine mostly by hand. and handheld buff wheel , etc..

91 Droptop

Those look great, can you post how you started? maybe a step by step thing. I polished up my old super charger and other stuff, but never did the wheels. I was going to order the IROC (chrome) for my 91 but I really like how these came out.

Thirdgen Ranch

iTrader: (5)

Your wheels turned out great!! As some of you guys said, it takes a LOT of work to get them polished and some people have said they gave up. If you're looking for polished wheels but don't have the time to do them yourself, we have polished factory wheels available on our site. We can also polish your existing wheels.

91 Droptop

What do you charge to polish a set of 91 Z-28 rims? also I see you have a picture but its kind of hard to see it with the angle, can you post or PM me with a price and better pic? also do you discount the wheels if I send you a set of wheels (cores) thanks

Thirdgen Ranch

iTrader: (5)

We sell our polished 16" Camaro wheels for $500 or we can polish your existing wheels for $300. We can give you a discount for your wheels as cores, however, we can't give you a price without seeing them and by the time you pay to have them shipped to us it may not be worth it. I've attached another picture of some wheels we just finished up.

FSTFBDY

iTrader: (33)

wow $300 is a deal on polishing rims. I usually charge $125 each. then again I do the inlays also. maybe its a bad picture but the ones you just posted don't look anything like the OPs or mine as fare as shine go.

Ive had a ton of "wow where did you get chrome Z rims" Again maybe its just that picture.

Thirdgen Ranch

iTrader: (5)

We polish ours to a mirror finish as well. It's a little hard to tell from the picture. We try not to get much reflection in our pictures because some people think it's a blemish in the wheel. Here's a set of GTA wheels we just did too.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Thanks for the compliments fellas, it's appreciated.

While it does take a lot of work, being able to say I polished them myself is the real accomplishment I was after. Like I said previous, these are a second set of wheels. My original intention was to refinish and sell them to get car parts.

I spent a lot of time working on that wheel, but much of that work was done with sanders and a polisher as opposed to hand sanding, which takes quite a bit of time. I only handsanded the final 600 grit pass and the lip (which I could have sanded better).

I'm interested to see how long the next wheel will take now that I have a better idea of what I'm doing. With any luck, by the 4th wheel I'll have a pretty solid method down that won't be too back breaking, just time consuming. I've also got a few other things I'd like to try that I'm guessing will give me an even better shine. I let you guys know when I finish the next wheel if I came up with anything better.

Shakermaker05

Seeing how awesome that turned out makes me want to take the Ronal Firehawks off mine and go back to the stocks (and I love my Firehawks!). Great job!

85_ZED28

Great idea! I'll take those ronals off your hands!

Shakermaker05

lol Ohh no, I changed my mind! :-) It's funny because I went back and forth for years as whether or not I wanted to replace the the stock rims because I wanted to do something like this. I was a young kid at the time and thought all the polished rims I was seeing back in the early 2000's were chrome. I priced a local shop to chrome mine and the price was astronomical (at least for my college job income lol) About 5 years ago I finally went with the Ronals. No regrets there, as like I stated above I love them and have absolutely no complaints. I do, however, miss the old ones sometimes.

I almost sold my originals for a hundred bucks to some guy I know a year and half ago, but decided against it at the last minute. I am now very glad I decided to hang on to them after seeing how nice you can make them look (with a LOT of work of course). I may take on a project like like this in the future to restore mine.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

starting the second wheel today...figured I'd shoot some before and after pics. This one looks a little worse than the first wheel was. Didn't realize how bad the clearcoat was and numerous small curb marks are present. I should be able to remove the curbs marks with sanding, though. Of course, I'll be using a stripper to take off the clear coat and paint. I'm primarily concerned with the grooves (yellow) since I can sand off remaining/loose clear from the flat aluminum surfaces with relative ease, using a orbital sander. Also, I plan to paint the grooves prior to sanding since it will be less of a hassel than taping off and painting later, especially the thin groove around the perimiter. Another note...with my last wheel I had removed a little bit of paint from all the insert edges when I started polishing. This time I'll leave those bare and just paint them after I polish the wheel.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Got the clear removed for the most part. Still had some tiny spots of residue, but nothing in the grooves or tough to get at areas. I'll be able to easily sand off all the remaining clear when I smooth out the wheel.

Taped off everything but the center section and grooves, paying extra attention to the thinnest line running near the perimeter of the wheel, then primed and painted the wheel black. Didn't take enough care masking off the first wheel and needed to sand off overspay. Not that big of a deal, just figured I'd take the time to tape it up well and eliminate some hand sanding. Again, no painted inserts till after polishing or I'll likely burn some paint off the wheel. Having to paint just the inserts when I'm done polishing should be easy.

I left the face of the wheel (spokes?) exposed just a touch when I taped off the wheel. After primer/paint, I was left with a tiny line of paint along the outside edges of everything masked off. After a quick pass with the sander, (180 grit) I was left with a pretty crisp paint line and it didn't take too much effort. Probably near three hours into it, give or take 15, and I'm ready to start sanding out the curb rash and smoothing the wheel itself.

Stonehenge

iTrader: (3)

Damn ! I've been looking and looking and looking for a really cool set of wheels and all this time they were right under my car!!! Those wheels look so sweet!. I wanted something that looked close to original, but were different than my friends and when I saw yours I was like "WOW!" Alright, so now the process begins! Thanks!

Stone

camaro1122

iTrader: (1)

Just to ask about the wheel weights, did you remove them from the front of the rim? If so whered you relocate them to?

musicfreako

iTrader: (1)

I hope he chose to use sticky weights. Don't ruin that new finish with a hammer on weight.

camaro1122

iTrader: (1)

How do those sticky weights work? And do you need a shop to install them or can it be done in our garage?

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

The current wheel weights are on the inner lip of the wheel...they become hidden with the wheel on the car. Or when you don't take a picture of the back of your wheel. haha I've requested that be done myself in the past. There was however a set of weights on the face of the wheels at some point. They left some corrosion marks I had to sand out.

I think stick on weights work the same a normal weights, they just get cut to size and stuck on the inside surface of the rim. Had a set of wheels with stick on weights as well. Just preferance I'd imagine.

Probably best to let a shop use a machine to balance the tire/wheel and detirmine the location and weight needed. I have no idea of the tolerances on a balanced wheel however, just tend to err on the side of caution. I'm just guessing you're wanting to remove your current weights and replace them with similar weights in the same location.

I did get a bit farther along in the sanding. So far 180, 220, 320 wet, and 400 wet. I'll get some pics up tomorrow showing a few of the various stages I went through using an orbital 1/4 sheet sander.

waterboy87

The wheels look great! I'm doing a set also, and it's a lot of work. If mine turn out half as good as yours, I'll be happy.

Tobias05

those look excellent.

If I had a later model RS or Z28 I would proudly sport those.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

The pics don't show up all too well, but you can somewhat see the various stages I went through. I would STRONGLY recommend an inexpensive palmsander as it makes short work of sanding. A random orbital sander works great at removing the lines, but higher grits aren't readily avaliable at most stores. A 1/4 sheet palm sander is what I used since it uses regular sheets of sand paper you can get anywhere.

I had the machine grooves completely sanded off within 15-20 minutes, really making sure to eliminate the ridges. Since the sander I used was orbital, it left a pattern of circlar grooves everythere. I just made sure the finish was uniform throughout the wheel by keeping the sander moving at a constant pace. Went over the wheel twice making sure to leave the sander flat and get a consistent finish throughout.

As stated earlier, 180, 220, 320 wet, and 400 wet were done using the sander. Between every stage I hosed off the wheel and made sure the wheel was sanded evenly. When I started wetsanding, I went over the wheel three times making sure everything was flat and smooth. I plan on a final handsanding stage using 600 grit, though I might try 400 like the writeup on top instructs. Either way, I intend to sand the wheel in the opposite direction I will be working the buffer, running parallel to the spokes, from the center of the wheel out.

Also, using the sander I frequently hit the lip of the wheel when going over the thin lines on the face. It only left small marks, but the were all over the place. I ended up taping the wheel lip between steps to help eliminate so many marks.

I hope to start polishing over the weekend, so I'll have more pics soon. Probably spent another couple hours sanding the wheel down, I'd say I'm near 5, maybe 5 and a half hours into it. Not too bad considering I've done little hard work (which is primarily the handsanding) and I'm probably an hour out from starting to polish with a buffer. Thats when things start to look drastically different!

Again, sorry if the pics aren't too much help, just keep in mind that the finish looking the same throughout the wheel is what I'm trying to show. I believe the 180 pass is skipped in the pics, but you get the idea. Smooth and uniform.

Also, the center cap was too far gone to save. I'll polish up a seperate after the wheel. Probably gonna need to buy a new, used set.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Loaned my buffer out to a friend and just got it back, so I'll be back on this more than likely tomorrow. In the meantime, I had sanded my wheels to 600 and went after an "initial reflection" of sorts. I used a corded drill that spins pretty quick, along with a stiff buffing wheel and emery compound (black) to cut down the wheel and get some sort of reflection. Up close, the reflection I'm after is somewhat clear, but quickly becomes cloudy from distance. I'm just trying to get an outline of myself when standing over the wheel, to know the wheel is smooth enough to start reflecting back an image. After that I remove the scratches with finer and finer compounds which I'm assuming is what gives clarity to the reflection of the wheel.

For stiff/firm buffing wheels, I only had two smaller wheels, but they were pretty stiff. Make sure the buffing wheel is stiff enough to work into the aluminum, knowing that your trying to grind the surface smooth using the grit in the compound. The more firm the wheel, the easier it is to get it to shine. Couldn't tell you the size wheel I used off hand, but I would have been better off with a larger wheel. The larger the wheel, the more buffing surface covered with each revolution of the drill. If that makes sense? Make sure to use a stiff/firm wheel used for cutting, I used a Dico brand (?) wheel from ACE with good results, but online has a much better selection of proper equipment. I'll be picking up better equipment for the next wheel. Need a stiffer wheel for my buffer, or to go to a much higher grit sanding. Maybe both. Back on topic, I've never been able to get a good reflection using emery with a loose wheel, so use a stiff wheel. Heck, I'm not even sure you NEED a good initial reflection, just know thats how I did the first wheel so I repeated the process.

To get it to shine took a lot of time going over and over and over the surface, but once it's smooth enough to see a reflection, is when I start. In the first pic you can see from left to right, a few stages of buffing. The far right is very close to where I start. My starting point for the next compound, (tripoli) looks like the pic with the sun drop reflection.

The compound I used first (emery) is for buffing stainless steel (I think), so it's pretty course and scratches the aluminum a good amount, visible in the second picture along with the reflection of a light on the garage ceiling. In person, the surface has a LOT of visible scratches but it was a bit difficult to catpute on camera. Once I can see a reflection though I start with the tripoli on a high speed buffer, which is the first compund used in the sticky on the top of the board. This is an additional first step, but the compound came in the kit I had and I figured it couldn't hurt to use it. Ran across a couple other sites online that start with the same compound.

Next wheel, I'll sand to higher grit because this was actually a pretty long process. I would imagine with an electric sander the extra time used to sand the surface smooth would be worth the quicker start, but I really have no clue. I'll figure it out on wheel three. Probably messed with the wheel a little over two hours to get a shine, so I'm stepping up the grit for sure. Call it about 8 hours on the wheel. Also, while buffing I hit some of the painted surfaces and burt them up pretty quick. Did it on the first wheel, but this time I was gonna be extra careful. ... Not so much. Wheel three I'll only focus on the thin outside groove on my initital paint and just tape up the rest and paint after I pollish. Live and learn, eh?

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Before starting to buff today, I dropped a wrench I had in my hand directly on the wheel leaving a few deep scratches on my "ready to buff" wheel. Since I had to break out the sander to remove the scratches, I figured I'd go past 600 and sand with 1000 and 1500 grit as well, instead of waiting till the next wheel.

I really wanted to work quickly so I didn't even wet sand, all just dry sandpaper on my 1/4 sheet sander. 180 (somewhat deep scratches), 220, 320, 400, 600, 1000, 1500. After 1500 dry I took the same drill/buffing wheel and emery to the wheel. Not only was I able to get a shine MUCH quicker than when I sanded to 600, the shine was actually VERY clear and pretty easy to achieve. I was quite surprised! I have no idea what the sticky up top is talking about when it says sanding over 400 makes your work cloudy, but thats simply not true. While sanding to higher grades takes longer, and not much with an electric sander, buffing with compounds goes much quicker and looks better. I'm now gonna sand the wheel with 1000 and 1500 and start over with the emery in hopes of getting a better finished product.

I've read online that sanding to higer grades before starting to buff with compounds produces a clearer finish, but was weary due to the sticky up top. Having seen it with my own eyes I would agree that a higher grit sanding job produces a more clear reflection. While I can only compare to my first wheel, and this is the first step, this wheel will START with a much cleaner reflection than my first. 1500 compared to 600 before starting to buff with the compounds, makes a very noticable differance in the reflection.

I'll post some pics of the wheel before I start with the tripoli on the high speed buffer. This wheel will look WAY better than the first wheel when I started, which has me eager to get on it. The wheel I did polish gets a little cloudy from far away, but with this recent discovery, I'm hoping to eliminate that on this wheel.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Polished up half the wheel with emery and so far so good. Very good reflection, again MUCH better than the start of the first wheel. I seem to have lost or ran out of my 1000 grit sandpaper so I skipped ahead to 1500 from 600. Took longer and was more difficult so I quit until I get some more paper.

On the first pic, I polished up the far right section, (camera on bottom, reflection of white ceiling on top) and was just starting on the top left section, while leaving the middle alone. Even though the surface is super smooth to the touch, a dark grey color (which I'm assuming is the compound) shows up like a haze when you first go over the surface with the buffing wheel, clearly showing the wheels imperfections. You can sorta see marks on the middle of the center section that appear to be light colored spots, but it's hard to get on camera. Very noticable in person though. I'm guessing these are low spots? The more you go over the surface, the lighter the haze becomes until it eventually clears and the spots disappear, leaving you with a level, clear surface.

In the second picture you can see the reflection, before even getting to the tripoli. Being that the emery is a more aggressive compound, the scratches it leaves need to be buffed out with finer compounds. I thought I had some blemishes in the wheel after looking at this pic, but after checking it out I realized the spots were reflections of emery chunks left on the surface of what the wheel rested on. In case you can't tell, I'm impressed how clear and clean I got the reflection already. Don't want to get ahead of myself, but I think this wheel could look noticably better than the first.

camaro1122

iTrader: (1)

Hey just a few questions, when using all the compounds which ones in your opinion are really necessary? What type of speed are you using on a drill? And comparing the wet sanding to dry on high grits, does it pay to wet sand? Because you said your results were very good with the dry

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

While I don't claim to know the correct method, I just used every compound I had in the set of compound I bought since I figured it would give me the best chance of a mirror shine. The finer the grit, the easier the compound is to work with and the better the shine. All depends on the finish you want. I would suggest using the emery and going from there. Even with just a hand drill the results are good. Once you get good results, you'll probably want to use them all. I've read online of simply tripoli followed by white rouge, so I guess it varies. I do know its much easier to get a mirror shine with emery than with tripoil, just has a ton of scratches.

For the drill I'm using, it's just a cheap corded tool shop drill from menards. Didn't want to burn up a good drill. I just use the drill full speed since it's cheap. I suppose you could experiment with speeds, but I use a fast drill with a FIRM wheel to start. Also, I frequently switch directions the buffing wheel travels on the surface (forward/backward, of sorts) and wipe down the surface lots. Just try anything you can to clear the surface to a mirror finish. You'll get a better idea of what I mean when you see it for yourself. For the next compounds, I switch to a polisher/buffer that reaches 3500 RPM which works quicker than the hand drill.

I actually tried to wet sand a section to see if it would make the buffing any easier. While it did make it easier, I DID get a cloudy finish that I didn't care for. Couldn't tell you if it would have polished out, but I just dry sanded it and went over it again and it came out clear. I believe you just want the surface as flat as possible to start. At such a high grit the surface is probably smooth enough to let the compound take over leveling the surface. Once you buff a small area to a mirror finish you'll be able to figure out what you need to do to get the surface perfect. You will still see very minor imperfections up close, but you'll be able to tell it's good by how clean and clear the reflection is. Just work over and over the haze until it disappears. After cutting through the haze and clearing up the reflection, the process gets a bit easier. As I stated earlier, the finer the compound the easier it is to work with. After the first step, your actually just removing lines left from the previous compound. Once you start getting a better shine, you'll want to keep going over and over the surface cause all it does is give you an even better shine. I believe the cleaner the surface to start, the better the reflection as you progress. We shall see.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

yeah...so the reflection when sanding to high grit starts out looking exceptional, but I just can't seem to get the images in the reflection sharp. I was assuming by cloudy, the wheel would have a haze over the entire surface. Rather then that, the color is fine it's the actual object in the reflection that has a sort of haze around it. Kinda like a halo effect. I'll try more to get the reflection sharp, cause the surface itself appears smoother than the first wheel. Possible I just need to go over it more, possible I was wrong and the sticky was correct.

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

i enjoyed my polished rs wheels when i had them. nut i bought mine polised. those look really good.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Thanks, I think I recall running across pics of your wheels. Weren't they completly polished, inserts and everything? For some reason, I took a very strong liking to these wheels when I was younger. Think I like them more than most.

As for my current wheel...I not only got the reflection sharper, I polished a small section to a mirror finish. The higher grit didn't appear to haze the wheel one bit, it actually made the reflection much more clear. It would now appear I didn't sand good enough with the low grits, (should have went over the surfaces better) cause I have super faint pitting on my otherwise crystal clear finish. The small areas I did go over well enough are CRAZY clear. So clear, I'm probably gonna have to sand it down again along with the first wheel. The results were that good. Finally close to getting the true professional results I was after. Obviously they're not billet, but the shine I'm getting on the sections I properly sanded, are so clear it's almost funny. Sand every stage VERY WELL, it's the most important aspect of a clear reflection. That being said, I'll probably work up to 2000 grit as well. Learning on the fly, but I'm SO close to finally getting the results I initially set out to get. Hard to tell the differance in pics, but to the naked eye my second wheel reflects much more clear than the first. I'll show a side by side comparison to the first wheel when I finish up the second one, which should offer the best chance to notice a differance on camera.

If anyone has any additional tips or things I might be missing, please feel free to comment. I'm sure someone can add to my info, possibly someone with more polishing experience than one wheel, like myself. By no means am I the authority on polishing. Just a guy sharing my observations while trying my best to achieve a true professional finish.

Baja B4C1LE

They look great!! I know it would have been harder to do this with the tires on, but do you think you could have? Are you going to clearcoat them when your done?

Thanks for taking the time to do the detailed write-ups.

mikeoguz

iTrader: (3)

THE WHEELS LOOK AMAZING>.. ANY PICS OF THEM ON THE CAR?

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

here is the only pic i have left.


now she has these

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

With a tire on the biggest hassel would probably be throwing the wheel around. Between sanding, rinsing, and just generally repositioning the wheel you kinda handle the wheel a lot. Really easy to handle without a tire. Still, I'd probably give it a try with the tire on, so long as the wheels are off the car, of course. The only hard to get to spot would be where the wheel contacts the tire. Would be much easier to get to without a tire, but it has to be possible. As for clearcoat, I'm gonna leave 'em bare so I can go over and polish them whenever they lose their shine. Not only could the clearcoat peel or yellow, if I wanted to polish them again, I would have to take them back to bare metal or I would just be polishing the clearcoat. I have seen some people have their polished wheels powder coated clear, and recently heard of having a set of wheels clear anodized, which seems like a really cool idea too.

No pics on my car. These are a second (actually third) set of wheels I picked up cheap just to try and polish. Really didn't have much intention of keeping them, still might not. I have a set of 18" boyds that I need front tires for. Kinda torn between a set of tires for these, or two front tires for my other wheels.

one92rs, did your car ever have red heritage stripes? Could have sworn I saw those wheels on a black/red camaro, but my memory could be wrong. Your current set of wheels look pretty sharp. American Racing?

Went back over the wheel and noticed some areas of the wheel require more attention than others. Probably just the manufacturing process, but a couple areas were roughed up pretty good. (smooth to the touch but visibly uneven) Got three of the five spokes sanded beautifully, but I'm gonna have to go back over the other two with a lower grit. 80 or 120, whatever removes the imperfections. I'll probably start the next wheel with 80 to remove the casting lines and make sure I start with a level surface. When you go over the surface with a sander, all imperfections become very visible. It takes a bit of time, but make sure the entire finish is completly even. Go over and over the surface leaving the sander perfectly flat and make sure to sand out all marks. Once everything looks good enough to continue, go over the entire wheel again, leaving the sander perfectly flat, of course. All small imperfections will show up as darker colored areas. Sand those out before moving on. If you leave any pits or marks in the finish and move on to the next grit, you'll never remove the blemish cause you'll be using a finer and finer grit that removes less and less material. I would suggest starting with an agressive grit on a sander to make sure the surface is flat to begin with. From there you'll be sanding an already even surface as you move up in grades of sandpaper. The more flat the surface, the better the reflection when you get to buffing with the finer compounds. The wheel will shine up either way, but all imperfections effect the reflection to a degree. The first wheel I polished went from 180 to 600 grit and turned out great. This current wheel will be from 80 to 2000.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

I went over the wheel again with 120 grit on the sander. Kept going over the wheel until everything was perfectly flat. I had one particular area (spoke?) that was pretty stubborn, and I took a few pics. You can see pretty good the surface imperfections I'm talking about in the first pic. This was taken AFTER I went over and over with 120 grit, trying to remove the low spots.

It would seem that the individual spokes actually have higher edges and a ever so slightly recessed middle. You can see how I was going over the wheel with the sander trying to get to the low spots. I have no idea of the grit I used to get THIS clear (it was by far the worst section), but had you seen the sandpaper I used, you would think I was nuts. It almost looked like tiny rocks glued to a piece of paper! haha It was probably 60 girt, but it looked pretty nasty. Even with 80 grit, I was having a hard time removing all imperfections.

In the second pic, you can see how the spots are cleared up. You can also see a good amount of dust in the grooves. I've read multiple threads on here that tell you not to go below a certain grit cause the scrathes are too deep and take too long to remove. In my opinion, if you don't star with a low girt, you'll never get the surface perfectly flat nor will your wheel shine as good as it could. I went over everything with 120 grit for quite a while and I have a electric sander. Still couldn't manage to remove ALL the imperfections. I wasn't able to get all the pits and grooves removed until I really roughed up the surface with 80 grit. I got this finish by slowly moving the sander over everything perfectly flat (120 grit), to make sure the surface was level. When I previously sanded, I had just tried to make sure I had an uniform look without regarding the surface being totally flat. If you move the sander quickly over the low spots I pictured, you can get a uniform finish, very similar to the second pic. The surface will look and feel smooth, but it won't be as flat as you think. The imperfections will show up later when you sand or polish.

In the third pic, I moved the dust to the bottom so you can get an idea of how much material I removed. Even with the casting lines removed from the wheel, you still have a good bit of sanding if you want everything smooth. VERY good idea to wear a dust mask unless you want to inhale aluminum. Prolonged exposure to the dust can't be good for the lungs.





NOTE: After having removed too much material from this wheel, I have come to the conclusion that the aluminum itself has tiny imperfection that will never be sanded out. You'll never get the surface 100% perfect. Start at 180 after removing the grooves and work up. I wouldn't bother going any lower with the grit. If you sand to 2000 grit, the imperfections become quite invisible.

one92rs

iTrader: (5)

i bought the wheels from a member here. i believe his car was red.

the wheels i have now are voxx misano wheels. 18X9 rear and 17X8 front.

camaro1122

iTrader: (1)

So now instead of sanding with your hands are you doing it byusing an electric sander? So now with all this said, what grit would you recommend starting at? And by hand or with a sander? working from that, what grit would you use the electric sander until before doing it by hand? Also when you said you used high grit dry, what did you stop at before going to wet? Since im doing the wheels with the tires on, im trying to find an easier way to strip that clear. Once i got the clear off on the first one/only only one i did, the wheel came together pretty quick. I know how many people use a paint stripper, but im assuming it will harm the tire right?

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

I've always been using a 1/4 sheet hand sander, it is WAY faster than going at it by hand. The only time I ever spoke of handsanding was the 600 grit on the first wheel I polished, and my initial thought on attacking this wheel. Seriously I would go to Habor Freight online and get the $20 1/4 sheet sander at LEAST, I wouldn't even try unless I had a sander. Even with it, it takes a bit of work to get what you want. Buy one and thank me later...cause you will. And if you do...I anticipate a thank you.

All being said, I would suggest ALL work be done with an electric sander, it cuts so much time off it's actually unintellegent NOT to use one. The only time I handsand is when I'm rinsing off the wheel and I only need to sand the corners of the lip I can't reach with the sander. I would start at 80 with a sander, but that is a bit much. I can comfortably suggest 120 on a sander, then go back over with 80 grit, all the dark spots (imperfections) that you see. If you go up a grade or two of sanderpaer from the current grit you're working with, and go over the wheel perfectly flat with a sander, the spots become very visible. I actually have a couple sanders, so I have a a higher grit avalaible at all times. Every time I think the surface is good, I go back over it with the higher grit. Each time I sand, I have less to remove and after a few passes the surface is perfectly flat. Seriously guys, if you want a true mirror shine, you're gonna need the help of a sander. And a lot of sandpaper.

I really don't think I'm going to wetsand the wheel at all. If I do, it will be 2000 wet after 2000 dry, but I'm thinking by that time the surface will be smooth enough. The compound has grit and I'm guessing that after 2000, the surface will be smooth enough for the compounds to finish smoothing out the surface. If I'm not happy with my results at 2000 dry, I'll go back to 2000 wet. I only work a section at a time since I'm still trying to get where I want. No sense in doing the whole wheel if you're not sure you can get the shine you desire.

I've stripped a couple wheels with tires on before, but I've always used a brush and made sure I kept the stripper on the wheel. I've had small amounts on the tire before without adverse effects, but I would try my best to keep that stuff off. If you put some tape around the tire and were cautious with applying the stripper you shouldn't have a problem. Don't worry when you hose them down cause only prolonged exposure to the tire will effect it. A good hose down making sure to keep the tire clean of stripper works good enough. From there you can sand off any remaining small pieces of clear. When you do apply the stripper, you only need worry a lot about the inserts and painted sections. If you miss some clear on the surface you're going to refinish, it will sand right off. Every piece of unpainted aluminum gets sanded down, so a perfect strip job isn't essential, just the areas your going to paint again.

NOTE: I would recommend starting at 180, wouldn't bother with 120 or 80. If you do, don't remove too much material.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Worked on the wheel today. By the time I got to 320 dry I could see blemishes in the wheel, no matter how well I was going over it. I'm thinking that it might be impossible to remove every single blemish. I'm not too familiar with aluminum, but I would guess there are different grades. I would imagine billet would be a higher grade, resulting in little to no blemishes. After going over with 320 WET, the blemishes became much less noticable. Seems like the wetsanding actually removed a lot of blemishes I was after, but I couldn't say for sure since I'm not completly knowledgable on the subject. Every stage after 220 dry I wet sanded. From there I worked up to 1500 wet since I can't get 2000 grit anywhere close to me. Have to go a few towns over. After I sanded to 1500 wet with the sander, I went back to 1000 wet and handsanded before going over with 1500 wet. The handsanding was super easy cause the surface is already smooth. I just made sure I sanded all in one direction, opposite the direction the buffer runs. It comes out more clear since the lines are all in one direction as opposed to all over the place with the sander. Might not really matter, but it looks better to the eye.

cavazos31

iTrader: (4)

Polished up a section and it came out better than the finish on the first wheel. I still have to go over it with jewelry rogue, (a finer compound I used on the first wheel) but I can't find the wheel I have for it. All the other wheels have stronger grits. Probably head out in a couple days and pick up some 2000 grit and another buff wheel. I still hand polished the wheel to see what kind of reflection I could get going to 1500 wet on the sanding and white rogue on the compound. Still could go a stage better on both, (probably will on a seperate section) so I suppose the shine could still be a little better. A bit difficult to tell a differance without placing it next to the first wheel, but I'll only do that when this wheel is complete. My camera tries to focus on a single object in the reflection, so I'm having a hard time getting good pics. The wheel looks even better then the pics portray. Also, the reflection stays clear from farther away then the first wheel, which is sweet. With the wheels mounted your viewing angle will more than likely reflect the pavement, which will be perfectly clear. I'll post a couple pics and info as go through polishing the rest of the wheel. Let you know of the differance in finish with higher grit and finer compoound.

The jewelers rogue I didn't get to use, seems to color the reflection better than the white rogue, brightens it up a touch. You can kinda tell in the pics. I'm also gonna take more care of the lip on this wheel since I got out every curb mark and the lip is perfect. This wheel will look incredible when it's done, as will the set. If they look as good as I think they will, I'll strongly consider a set of tires.