Here is the latest on my eight hole wheel pursuit.

I ended up with three 8 hole wheels that have a clearcoated, painted looking finish, it may be a coating that appears like paint, or it may be a blasted aluminum surface with a clearcoat finish.

Now, my friend gave me the correct size matched wheel, but it is the polished, clear coated finish. It also has some mild surface scratches.

Any suggestions about what to do to make these wheels match and look good. I realize that I can send them to a wheel refinisher for $75 each, but I would like to do something less expensive. If I were going to do $75 each, I might go further and get them chromed if it's not to much more.

What would it take to polish these wheels? Would I need to chemically strip them first?

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

Have a great day,

Hi Larry - thanks for your help last year on my air conditioning on 560sel. My wheels were in rough shape. They were painted. I used aircraft paint stripper (outside - it reaks - wear latex gloves -it burns hands. Stripped them down and found nice aluminum finish underneath. I then used 1000 grit sandpaper and sanded the areas I wanted to shine and left the rest matte finished. I then used a buffing wheel on my drill with a white paste metal polish (can't remember name - came in a toothpaste like tube but half the size for $7.00) and buffed and buffed and reapplied and buffed. They don't look like chrome - but they sure look like nickel! I then clear coated them. They look very good - but next year - I will chrome plate them as I saw a pix of Mike Tangas's wheels that were chromed and really like them!! The wheels took me a whole day to do but I was more than satisfied with the results compared to what I had.
Maurice

moedip,

Thanks for your reply. I got some stripper and tried a small patch on a "scrap" wheel. It seems to lift off the finish relatively easily. It may be even easier if I let it set a little longer before scraping it off.

I was amazed at the smoothness of the aluminum surface underneath. I expect that it will take very little polishing to get a good gleam.

I have some clear wheel finish in spray cans that I got from Griots some time ago. Is this what you used, or should I get a better product from the automotive finish shop and use my spray gun?

Thanks for your advice, I expect these wheels to come out very nicely.

Have a great day,

Hi Larry - Impressive - what is underneath huh? I used 1000 grit emery paper to sand the areas I wanted to polish to remove any slight imperfections. I used polishing felts on a drill with the poish and the more I polished - the better it looked! When you have it right with the polish wipe the surface down with laquer thinners to ensure a good adhesion with the paint. I used clear coat with a spray gun - but I think the clear from Griot's - that is made for wheels will be better. All the best!
maurice

sounds to me like the white paste metal polish was flitz. works great, my btoher has used it on oxidation on his paint on his rover, and it has helped that too.

I have also heard you can use baking soda to polish chrome finishes.

At least thats what my dad was told because he wants to clean up the chrome on his nardi steering wheel in his rolls.

Sounds to me like your best course of action is to strip them suckers, polish, and clear coat em with a high temp clear coat. they should come out looking very nice, and if not, you can always get wurths wheel painting kit, or have them powdercoated.

Alon

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