Refurbing/polishing wheels..finished!!
Turbo Mini Forums

Ive spent the last 2 hours polishing my wheels and I can't get the finish any better than this....







So far ive taken the laquer off, sanded with p400 (wet) sanded with p1500 (wet) then polished with a polishing wheel using T-Cut (all I had, and thought it could work! lol) as a rubbing compound. Any ideas how to get a more of a mirror finish?

With regards to the centres, would smooth finish hammerite be ok? And will it give a reasonable finish? Do you need to prime the ally before you apply the hammerite, as it says you can apply directly to the metal?

Cheers
Matt

Edited by matty on 15th May, 2009.

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

i wouldn;t think smooth hammerite would finish nice enough for a set of wheels, best off spraying them.

as for the rims have look on ebay for an abrasive polishing kit, they're around £40 and will bring the rims up to a mirror finish.

screwfix do a kit for a drill...about £20.
Either that..or a few hours with Autosol

personally i like a duller finish, dont like it too chromey, 1200 withe water is about as fine as i'd go, maybe a bit of steel wool (brillo pad), when its laquered it will look shineyer.

T.Cut is a nightmare on alloy! I tried this many years ago and got nowhere. It jst seems to get you a greasy kind of finnish. Then I found Autosol! Give it a try. I know a few guys that have refurbed wheels and only spray the centres leaving the alloy bare. If the car doesnt see much winter use it is not a big deal. A wee wipe over every few weeks with autosol keeps them gleeming and now worries about corrosion under the laquer. I did a rocker cover on my other car this way and left it ovr a year before I had to polish it again.

as has been said above ,you need an abrasive aluminium polishing set,
you really need to cut it back with greasy compound [ dark smelly bar] on a sisal stitched mop then a final lick over with the blue bar on the stitched mop and bingo,shinier than Edmond Blackadders shiniest button from his shiny cupboard,

carl

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PMSL @ carl,

as shiny as his turkish codpeice??

http://www.tooled-up.com/Product.asp?PID=12751

something like that carl?

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Brasso

Own the day

Cheers for the advice lads, alloy wheels on a mini is all new to me! lol

Will get polishing!

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Well I bought myself a polishing kit and it seems to be working really well with the coarse compound (brown) and hard mop but I can't seem to get the fine (blue) compund t take to the soft mop....any tips on how to apply the fine compound onto the mop? It seems to be alot harder than the coarse compound?

Oh yeah, whats the best way to remove a tyre? Its fucked so doesn't matter if it gets ruined.

Edited by matty on 29th Apr, 2009.

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

hammer

I've got old tyres off before by hammering them off the bead, then cutting through the sidewalls with a stanley knife, before finally hacksawing through the bead wire. All in all a bloody ballache, unless you are super tight just find your pikeyest local tyre place and bung them a fiver!

On 29th Apr, 2009 matty said:
Well I bought myself a polishing kit and it seems to be working really well with the coarse compound (brown) and hard mop but I can't seem to get the fine (blue) compund t take to the soft mop....any tips on how to apply the fine compound onto the mop? It seems to be alot harder than the coarse compound?

Oh yeah, whats the best way to remove a tyre? Its fucked so doesn't matter if it gets ruined.

WWW.FORCE-RACING.CO.UK PLEASE CLICK HERE

On 29th Apr, 2009 matty said:
Well I bought myself a polishing kit and it seems to be working really well with the coarse compound (brown) and hard mop but I can't seem to get the fine (blue) compund t take to the soft mop....any tips on how to apply the fine compound onto the mop? It seems to be alot harder than the coarse compound?

Oh yeah, whats the best way to remove a tyre? Its fucked so doesn't matter if it gets ruined.

Own the day

Can you not rub it onto the wheel then polish it off?

No.

You need to get heat into it. Like Carl said. Force the mop into the bar. Then let it cool. then apply.

I always top up my mops before I put them away ready to use next time.

Si

I drill holes in everything..!

As si says, heat into mop,

i always run a piece of flat plat against my finishing mop to heat the whole thing up before i use it to polish.
if not it just drags the compound around the job and makes a real mess,

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Well after LOTS of pissing around polishing...re-polishing, painting then stripping the paint off and spraying, ive finished 2 of the wheels...20 hours later . Hopefully the next 2 will take half that! Im really pleased with the way they've turned out though.

Will get a better pic tomorrow with the new tyres on, on the car. :)

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi

Mmmmmmm matty ! Those look the business mate !

"So wat we gonna do tonight Brain?"
"Same thing we do evernight Pinky!"
"Try to take over the world!"

well worth the effort!

Think im going to have to get a kit, and see what i can get the revo's up like.

need to paint strip the centres first.

bloody good job that matty

mambas give me the horn

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Hurry up and get it out so you can cause offence to sarah

It sounds like you've got the hang of it. The polishes, if they are similar to what I've used here in the States, are wax blocks. Since they are wax, you pretty much need the friction of the the mop wheel to melt the wax before it will take.

It took me 10 hours to polish up just one of my Mambas. When I finished that single wheel, I said to hell with it and had them powder coated in semi gloss black.

61 Austin Seven; building a 1275 'over the clutch' turbo, R5 T2'd, custom intercooled, megajolt electrified, canyon carver

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Cheers for the comments, the photo's are shite I know!

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1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi