I have a set really nice wheels and got them cheap because some jack hole painted them red. This is probably a dumb question but if I strip off the paint and polish them, will they have a "polished" mirror look or is there some coating or paint that makes them that mirror like?

No, there is no coating that makes them look like that. Just a lot of elbow grease. It also helps if the quality of the wheel is good enough to really make polishing worthwhile. Some wheels have a close grain structure and some cheap wheels have lots of casting imperfections so they take more work to polish out. You will have to sand down any imperfections smooth first before you can start polishing the wheels. a lot of work for sure but they can look spectactular if they are done right.

I polished an Edlebrock intake manifold once and if I had to do it all over again, I would just buy one already polished, it's that much work and messy too.

[This message has been edited by TONY_C (edited 12-13-2010).]

These rims in question, are they Aluminum?

Polished aluminum will dull if not covered with something. Usually they are covered with a clear coat. Yes you could just polish and then wax them, and then polish and wax them again and again.

[This message has been edited by phonedawgz (edited 12-13-2010).]

There are some aluminum polishes out there that work wonders on bare aluminum, make sure you get a quality one. It will take a LOT of work to get them to shine though, and even then, it probably won't look as good as a brand new from the factory polished aluminum rim. Getting in the nooks and crannies will be a pain also. I'd give it a shot, only thing ya got to lose is the cost of the polish and maybe some knuckle skin

wet sand them, polish them to a mirror finish, Then Use" urathane clearcoat" for wheels, or it will "go south" rather quickly.

any aluminium rims could be shiny. just alot of work!
im in the process of doing it right now on a set of GT rims. just polishing the lip and removing all the old paint and what not.
i just used a wire wheel on a drill and went to town on the lip. it looks semi polished already. but will need to sand it smooth to get the scrached out.
i think the hard work is removing the old paint and making the rim smooth. polishing is the easy part. more you polish the better it looks.

some rims are chrome plated tho. and if it has any chrome. that would be a pain in the arse to remove!


i would use paint stripper and let it sit for afew mins to get the paint soft and use a small wire brush to brush it off. and rinse it after. will have to do it afew times to get it all off.
i put some cheap paint remover i had at home and coated the rim. and used an old tooth brush to get into the cracks and work the stripper into the paint. so far i did that twice now and i almost have all the paint removed so far.

I have heard you can "sand blast" aluminum rims with crushed walnut - would this help or hinder the process?

Id sand them. I do that to alloys all the time. I leave them on the car, take off the weights and run the car with the wheels off the ground. Starting with #36 and working down. I like the machined look myself, so I usually dont go finer than #180. If you want to make them like chrome, go finer and use mag polish to finish them. I NEVER put clearcoat back on them. I drive those wheels on snow, ice and rain, but I keep my cars clean. Ive also used stripper to take off the clear/ paint and finished them with just fine paper. Sanding them on the spinning wheel makes better looking results than doing them by hand. just be CAREFULL so you dont break a finger or catch something. Watch out for valve stems too.

Yes, if it is aluminum. With a lot of elbow grease, you can get just about any wheel to look like a mirror. Roger is correct. Got pics of the wheels in question?

Excellent writeup found with search....

https://www.fiero.nl/cgi-bin...n.cgi?WheelPolishing

Have them chromed! The amount of time it would take to get them even close to acceptable is ridiculous.
Or just buy some cheap ebay wheels and call it a day...

It costs about $200 per wheel to get them chromed....cheaper to buy new ones Elbow grease is free. Sandpaper and polish cost you less than $10.

"can any rim be made into a polished aluminum rim?"

If they are steel or magnesium, it'd require too much work.

quote Originally posted by ALJR: The amount of time it would take to get them even close to acceptable is ridiculous.

So, not starting an argument, but if an hour or two per rim is ridiculous, then buy new, polished wheels.

I have personally refinished nearly 20 sets of wheels in my life. 75% of them aluminum. All for my own cheap a$$ reasons. With some stripper, the correct process', and yes, elbow grease, you can have a nice polished wheel in about an hour. It is not difficult if you follow the forum linkey. Besides, the satisfaction of doing it yourself is worth the effort. Like stated earlier, sandpaper and polish is cheap. Figure in a few cans of stripper, some rubber gloves, and perhaps a beer, and you are looking at a cost south of $30 for all four wheels. Basically a green fee at the municipal course.

[This message has been edited by Tony Kania (edited 12-14-2010).]

quote Originally posted by Tony Kania: So, not starting an argument, but if an hour or two per rim is ridiculous, then buy new, polished wheels. I have personally refinished nearly 20 sets of wheels in my life. 75% of them aluminum. All for my own cheap a$$ reasons. With some stripper, the correct process', and yes, elbow grease, you can have a nice polished wheel in about an hour. It is not difficult if you follow the forum linkey. Besides, the satisfaction of doing it yourself is worth the effort. Like stated earlier, sandpaper and polish is cheap. Figure in a few cans of stripper, some rubber gloves, and perhaps a beer, and you are looking at a cost south of $30 for all four wheels. Basically a green fee at the municipal course.

In my younger days, I prolly would polish them myself. As I have polished other aluminum parts (Fiero valve covers; BTW, those are a ***** because the aluminum casting is poor)... Today, being married, having a baby, new home and trying to run a business; my time is more valuable If I have 4-5 hours to refinish a set of wheels, I could spend that time working and make $500-1000 in the office...

So I guess if time is something you have allot of, then it would make since to polish them yourself... To me, I would rather buy a new set ($400-$500 for a decent set off ebay) of something I really liked, rather then dress-up something else...

I stripped, sanded all 4 of the aluminum rims on my Astro van to look new in a couple of hours....and no there not going to get cleared. The original clear got chips in it and road salt ate the hell out of them. I even managed to file out some chips from being curbed.

if I could buy a set like these for 400 or 500 I would, but they are forged 15 lbs 17 inch wheels, and I got them for cheap, because of the terrible paint job.

this is how they should look


I will post pics of the crappy paint job early next week.

how old are your kids, you could put them to work polishing the wheels

quote Originally posted by phonedawgz: These rims in question, are they Aluminum? Polished aluminum will dull if not covered with something. Usually they are covered with a clear coat. Yes you could just polish and then wax them, and then polish and wax them again and again.

Ummmm. I havent and mine look good.

what you could do. insted of doing ALL 4 rims at once. you could do one at a time. one day you can do one rim. another day do another and so on.

Post that photo of what you have whereas some wheels are just have too many nooks and cranies -IE the stock lace GT wheels- to make them worth the effort.

BTW: There's one other option if you happen to know anyone that does powder coating. In which case you can then just strip the paint with off chems, sand any really noticable areas and powder coat them with near-chrome like we use on our intakes -below- I'd also add a coat of clear power coating over the chrome look.

quote Originally posted by Francis T: Post that photo of what you have whereas some wheels are just have too many nooks and cranies -IE the stock lace GT wheels- to make them worth the effort. BTW: There's one other option if you happen to know anyone that does powder coating. In which case you can then just strip the paint with off chems, sand any really noticable areas and powder coat them with near-chrome like we use on our intakes -below- I'd also add a coat of clear power coating over the chrome look.

I always wondered about that chrome-like power coat... That looks nice! How much prep work is involved to get that nice smooth fisish? Will the PC cover minor imperfections?