How to polish your rims

What fits best, Weights & Sizes
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By Vti93T
- Fri Mar 13, 2009 5:40 pm #102977
teal_dx wrote:what kind of wheels do you have? Just sand off the rust as needed, but the lower grit you go, the more sanding you'll be doing later on. I'd try starting with the 240 grit, anything lower is gong to be pretty heavy scratches.


They are the works Blake picked up awhile back. Well we tried wet sanding them but we used a higher grit sandpaper and well, the rust is still there..So 240 would be good to use?

This is how they sit right now. You can see the lip isn't perfect and well I want it to be perfect :lol:

Image
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By teal_dx
- Fri Mar 13, 2009 6:25 pm #102988 that looks like corrosion (aluminum doesn't rust) it will pit over time after the clear coat wears or chips. All you need is to do some more sanding and it will be gone eventually. A lower grit will speed things up initially :thumb:

I had to start with 180 grit, but you saw how corroded mine were. I'd try 240.
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By Vti93T
- Fri Mar 13, 2009 7:18 pm #103008 sweet thanks. Where did you find all the sandpaper? I know when we went looking for sandpaper we couldn't find anything over 1000grit
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By Vti93T
- Fri Mar 13, 2009 9:03 pm #103023
teal_dx wrote:check places that sell auto body supplies :thumb:


cause the last time we went looking for sandpaper we could find the 240-1000 but even when we went to autozone type places and home depot we still couldn't find over 1000
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By zeppelin101
- Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:07 pm #103033 Get the front of the car in the air, put the wheels on start the car, put it in 3rd / 4th gear. Get sanding.

Took me a day to do all four of mine I started at 240grit and worked to 1200

I didn't get a good shot though but you can see they look shiny as fook in this pic

Image

I don't have a good before pic either lol but they were pretty screwed. Similar state to what they're in now but I'm getting rid soon by the looks of it...
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By Vti93T
- Fri Mar 13, 2009 10:18 pm #103034 now if the rest of your car was washed and tire shine on those dirty tires..I'm sure you could really see those rims shine :thumb: woot!
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By zeppelin101
- Sat Mar 14, 2009 2:05 am #103077
Jdm_Katie wrote:now if the rest of your car was washed and tire shine on those dirty tires..I'm sure you could really see those rims shine :thumb: woot!


Effort lol that was last July I couldn't be arsed to clean the car my hands were in vast amounts of pain from a full day sanding / polishing :P
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By Vti93T
- Thu Apr 02, 2009 4:46 pm #107722 ok so I went last night and bought some sand paper. The lowest I could find last night was 400 so I'm going to try that and if it doesn't work well then I'm going to try to find a 320 or 240..Luckily the pack comes with 5 sheets lol. Woo Hoo. So yeah I'll post up pictures if all goes well lol

By rosey1990
- Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:15 pm #131904 Good evening from sunny England :) Found a link to this thread on a civic forum I use, and I've gotta say it's one of the best write up's I've ever seen! I'm currently in the process of rubbing down my EM1 wheels (think you guys call them Si alloys in the US) and have just finished 1000 grit on all four wheels. They were fairly corroded around the centre of the wheel and unfortunately I haven't been able to get through all the corrosion, even after starting with 240 grit. It has left a faint mark where the corrosion once was.

I will now be masking the face of the wheels up, ready for painting inside the spokes. This is where I need some advice. I notice that you have used a spray called Duplicolor, unfortunately we don't get this item in the UK. Instead of using this, would I have to use a metal primer (presumably grey), followed by the graphite/gunmetal colour, and then clear coat lacquer? Does the paint even need to be lacquered, as surely this will crack and peel once I continue rubbing with wet and dry?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Aaron
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By teal_dx
- Mon Jul 20, 2009 11:58 pm #131913 Welcome to the forum :)
I did not use any primer before the graphite paint. There was some of the OEM silver paint in those areas to begin with that did not come off with paint stripper. I made sure I removed all the flaking paint left from the stripper and then sanded what was left with 400 grit to see if I could get any more off. After that I cleaned, masked and again cleaned the surface with a wax & grease remover. The sides of the spokes are a rough cast to begin with, so maybe that gave the graphite something to bite to. I did 2 light coats followed by a wet coat. Then after curing, I did the same with clear although it was not needed. It did not make the graphite paint much more glossy than it already was.
The Duplicolor wheel paint is Enamel, not Lacquer. Enamel cures differently and is less prone to chip and more resistant to chemicals. Lacquer based paint will not last as long on wheels. Be sure to post some pics of your wheels :thumb:

By rosey1990
- Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:16 am #131988 Thanks for your reply Teal-dx. That has been a massive help :) I will be certain to get some pictures up when they're complete. Got some really thin masking tape through the post today (x1 roll of 2mm tape and x1 roll of 3mm tape). Think the 2mm tape is a bit too thin lol, but I suppose it'll be more precise around the spokes :)

The closest thing we have to your Duplicolor paint over here, is the Simoniz wheel paint:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-x-Simoniz-Large ... 1333wt_930

I'm not even sure this is enamel based paint? Is this along the same lines as the Duplicolor paint? Maybe it'd be better if I go for regular car paint spray, as there is a much wider choice of colours out there.

Also, I'm finding it really difficult find any wet and dry paper over 1500 grit. Would I be able to get the mirror finish from 1500 grit or is it essential I go to 2000 grit?

Cheers
Aaron
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By teal_dx
- Tue Jul 21, 2009 12:52 pm #132012 you can try polishing after 1500 grit, but I bet it won't look as shiny as if you went all the way to 2000 grit. Try paint & body automotive supply shop :thumb:
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