I decided to jump on the bandwagon and polish some aluminum of my own

This is something I've been wanting to do for a few years now. I've only had one set of wheels since I bought the car, but now that I have 18's, I've got two sets so I don't have to run my new 18's in the salty nastyness of winter here.

I'm going to polish the lips on all four rims and then refinish them. I'm thinking about plasti-dip... yeah yeah yeah don't moan about it. they are only winter rims. I think it's the better way to go than to repaint them or powder coat them. Definitely the easiest and cheapest.

Here's what the wheels look like. Most of the lips are all corroded. Good enough for winter wheels, but I'm such a mod freak even my winter wheels have to be modded





Here is sanding up to 600 gritt.



The final product. I've only finished one lip. It's really time consuming!





And a shout out for mothers-- if you guys haven't tried this stuff it's amazing!



Hoping to get another wheel polished today

 

For stock rims they're in amazing condition. Mine are err not so

 

The polishing bug has spread!!!!!!

Looks great man!

I really do like the mother's mag and aluminum polish. Works great. I used white diamond before a car show today just to get a taste of what the expensive polish looks like and it's nearly an identical shine. So with that being said I approve of Mothers! (and it's not too expensive )

 

I was thinking of doing my 16's! the entire wheel though its not worth the time IMO :p lol

 

They really aren't too bad.. but I don't like stock :p

You guys were having way to much fun by yourselves I had to join in

You're crazy if you do the whole wheel!!


Do either of you guys know if the Mothers polish needs to be reapplied to keep a shine? Or is the shine permanent? How often do you need to apply the mothers polish?

 

im sure you'd need to polish them up with it when the shine starts going dull :p

 

I use this stuff quite frequently along with mother's.

I will say that it's pretty expensive (about $15) but it goes a long way. Just a little bit on a microfiber is enough to cover the crazy amount of polish I have in the engine bay. ALSO, White Diamond is a sealant so you don't have to worry as much about surface rust appearing like you would with the Mothers.

I think the Mother's may also have some type of sealant but no matter what polish you use it's best to keep it shined up and not let it dull or rust/pit

 

Thanks for the tips guys


I got the other wheel lip all polished up. Keane, this wheel is in no where as good condition as the first There was some bubbles from oxidation underneath the paint that I sanded down.

 

Might as well polish the whole thing!

 

Took me all evening just to do the lip!! The biggest thing with polishing the whole wheel besides it taking forever and you losing your arm, is the center caps are plastic. They wouldn't match at all