polishing wheels...suggestions please

[v12horse]

This is a very tedious task. It took me about 6 hours to polish one wheel with different grits of sandpaper. I started with 320. It did the job and took out all of the small nicks and scratches, but it took a lot of elboe grease. I went through the grits finally to 600. I used Master formula aluminum polish, and then some gloss sealer. I am undecided if it was worth all of the time. I can see a difference in the wheels, but man 6 hours! Here is a pic of a finished wheel.

[v12horse]

Here is a picture of a slot before polishing.

[v12horse]

This is a picture of a slot after 320grit.

[v12horse]

...

[v12horse]

This one is just for fun. I think this is the first time the spare was on this car. I am very proud, it is a 175HR14 Bridgestone.

[v12horse]

oops. Here it is.

[v12horse]

Thanks for all of your comments. They really helped. Now all you have to do is convince me that I should polish the last three. I am really dredding it. Take care and thanks a million.

Ben:classic:

[2ManyZs]

Look pretty good to me.....

If you didn't get it, you might want to try the 13103 kit to smooth the wheels before you use the polishing kit, lot less "elbow grease" required if it works as well as it should. Is it worth another 40 bucks not to have to do all that sanding?

[sblake01]

It's a tedious process even with the use of an 8" buffing wheel on my bench grinder. It took me about three days of work, off and on, for each wheel. When I did the 'Iron Cross' wheels, they took even longer because of the nooks and crannies. They were actually over done because they have that 'chrome' look. After all of that work, I took them off the car in favor of the earlier '4 spokish' factory alloys. I polished them too but not to the extent of the work done on the Iron Crosses. You can see them both in my gallery.

[hls30.com]

6 hours worth of beautiful! I have that same situation to look folward to! I hope mine turn out as well!

Will

[EScanlon]

As advice for the next person to attempt this:

First off, unless you have tons of time and energy, be aware that polishing metal is time consuming and it can take hours to get a reasonable result for your effort.

It is very easy to get in to the project with only "a little polishing" in mind and find yourself with a full blown resurface, smooth and polish operation that takes a dozen or more hours each.

Next, with that in mind, take it in small steps that you perform on all the pieces you'll be doing it to. In this manner you won't be stuck with the odd piece having had more / less work than the rest.

Just my 2¢

Enrique

[v12horse]

It took me so long because I started with 320. If I just started with 220 and went up through the grits it would have been a lot quicker. However, I am really happy with my one wheel.

You are right Enrique, I should have done everything little by little, but I was thinking it was going to be 3 hours per wheel. The next thing I am going to do before polishing the whole wheel is polish out the slots and then one by one polish the wheels. The pictures don't give the wheel justice. The wheel is so much smoother(as it should be).

-Ben