FuzzyLS BRO

ok, there's lots of DIY on polishing wheels but after reading all of them, i used this method. it may not be the best, but once again, this is what I did.

items required:

wet sand paper:
-400 grit
-800 grit
-1000 grit
-1500 grit
-2000 grit
beer
spray bottle
more beer
rags
mothers aluminum polish cream.
lepage polly suppa strippa
paint brush
gloves
something to scrape clear coat off
steel wool (fine)


here's the rim before, in my case, i had alot of oxidation on the rim, that's where the 400 grit comes in.



since i couldn't find aircraft stripper, i used this ---- found at crappy tire. it worked pretty good.



apply generously with the paint brush, make sure to wear gloves cause this ---- burns if it gets on your skin. here's it taking affect:



once it gets all bubbley, start to scrape the clear coat off, you may have to apply more stripper to get it all off

FuzzyLS BRO

next, you want to take the steel wool, this will take off any left over clearcoat, you need to put some elbow grease into this:



here's how it should look, there's still some left on in this pic tho:



then, grab all your sand paper, start out with 400 grit to get out all of the oxidation, go to town sanding whereever you want it to be polished:



repeat this step moving from 400 to 800 then 1000,1500 then 2000. afterwards, give it a couple of buffs with the mothers aluminum polish and they should end up like this:

Buff4Prez Yo

iTrader: (2)

where's you get the Super Strippa From i got one called Circa1850 and it sucked moose *****

FuzzyLS BRO

^i bought every single paint stripper from crappy tire, and that was the only one that worked.

Platinum Playa

aircraft stripper> All other strippers

Buff4Prez Yo

iTrader: (2)

^^^ where do you get that?

gsr rudebwoi

Won't the aircraft stripper strip the tire seal?

SIC1

^^ if you knew fuzzy, his tires are bald and need replacing anyways.


Optimally, it's best to have no tires on; then again, this is Fuzzy & Platty P we are talking about.

Smartass pHO

Too much sand paper! 5 different grits is beyond overkill.

400 -> 1000 -> 2000 is more than enough

Smartass pHO

BTW: You can skip the steel wool and use a good grinding wheel on a drill instead.

TwoSix

that look PIMP...good job

WildoutWhiteGSR

good job.


Another good step to add after your done all that is to wash them and give them a good two coats of wax, just so that any brake dust doesn't get a chance to inbed into the rim again, causing the clearcoat failure. It won't last too long maybe 2-3 weeks, but it helps.

Smartass pHO

http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1528275

Shouldn't you be posting here instead:
http://www.honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1525597

FuzzyLS BRO

^haha..no more spray-paint front bumper joke from j00!

RED GSR 92

Fuzzy you can do it with out a Paint stripper. Since all wheels have a little dusting of clear coat. I did something like that on my Bosses sons dirt bike frame. Used 1500 grit paper and Liquid Metal Polish. It got so good that it was like mirror finish. Amd to **** his son off i did only one side.
I started my wheels this winter but then i lost interest in it. Maybe ill finish them since now i have a nice little body shop to work at on saturdays.

DooD

i gotta do this to the lip of my rims.

good write up fuzzy.

polak182

Now, will this work with all Honda Wheels? I'm thinking of doing this to my Winter beaters the Acura EL turtle rims. Any clue?

FuzzyLS BRO

woah back from the dead. it should work on any aluminum wheel just aslong as the paint or clearcoat is stripped.

better pics:

polak182

Of course it's back. This is a classic DIY . Not quite sure if they're aluminum or somethin' else :S I can always give it a try sanding it to bare metal and trying. If it doesn't work, I can always repaint them. I had em a but curbed since I bought the car, so I wanna get them done either way. Yeah these are painted and clearcoated, but I'm going to use a random orbit sander instead of my hand and the aircraft stripper. 80grit sandpapre gets by anything And to be honest with you, I personally liked your old wheels better than your new ones. But since the braking performace on the 114.4 is better, you get a either way.

JDMcb7

mmmm 114.3 ITR mmmm i miss those rims but i dunno the only one thing i didnt like about them when i had them is that they look like a sunken battle ship! need spacers for them yea i ended up Polishing my Accord EXR wheels... which reminds me i should post some pictures up did it a bit diffrently but same concept.. half the time

WildoutWhiteGSR

Bump

JDM_overdose

iTrader: (9)

Ive done what you have done. I still have some clearcoat on. Do I apply more stripper, or sand it off?

I am doing them on the 5 star 1.6EL rims. Am i supposed to apply stripper inside the stars(the gaps inbetween every star).

smith_customs

i dont think so , just do it where u want it to shine and post some pics of your's in progress or when finished

FuzzyLS BRO

BuMp

matryx

I was wondering after all the sanding and taking all the clear. Do you have to take it to a shop to get it polished or can you do it yourself? What are the steps to getting it polished?

FuzzyLS BRO

^did you not read the first post?

matryx

I just read it over again. I just didn't know what you meant by saying
"go to town sanding whereever you want it to be polished:"

FuzzyLS BRO

^sand wherever you want it to be a polished finish....can't really make it any more clear than that...

matryx

when you're sanding with 400 grit..are you wet sanding it or drying sanding?

richie

when you used the mothers aluminum polish....did the cream turn black after you applied the cream on it?

Solid GSR YO

it should go that way when you start working it

PrincessS2K

Looks like my wheels will be getting some love!

Good write up Fuzzers!

Action Jackson

Personally I prefer wet sanding when working on metal.

FatTeg

iTrader: (-1)

I would imagine that sanding the clearcoat off the rims would make them more prone to brake dust setting in again. I suppose a good clear coating would do the trick after this process?

XSI Teggy

tnx for posting this up, i actually did my hammer heads last weekend.. I didn't use any polish though, i didn't know what to get. I'll finish up the job this weekend hopefully. Tnx again for posting!

jasonjai

iTrader: (1)

after you guys polish the rims, are you clearcoating it?

jay-san

i dont think its possible to clear coat the rims after you polish because the polish is a grease

spaz

i've got a set of ikon gt-5's that are gunmetal with the silver lip.... and they look like *** after i got them out of storage... ive used mothers billet polish and a power ball and its cleaned them up ALOT... but they're still marked up i'm assuming from a bit of salt that must have got on them before i put them away (even though i cleaned them)

anyone know if the lips are clearcoated on these? or can i just out right sand them and skip the paint remover step?? i've read the sanding process takes forever... so i may very well wait till the winter and do this... and just live with the marks on them for now

1slowcoupe

Thats an amazing job !!!