cottoneg

http://s278.beta.photobucket.com/use...78312504454065

Love my minilytes, and they were tough to find with a custom offset. I was looking at the pic of John Greenwoods car. I noticed his minilytes were all buffered out and polished.

Mine have a sort of matte finish. Anyway to buff that out and make them look like the Greenwood minilytes?

http://s278.beta.photobucket.com/use...53648534342457

zwede

Have you tried aluminum/mag polish?

cottoneg

I think this is more than polish. It is a different (non-shiny) finish. It is almost like you have to cut the top layer and buff out the metal underneath. I have to be understandably careful as they were pricey and I do not want to ruin them.

jabrun

If you're wanting a highly polished finish it's a lot of work. You start out with sandpaper and keep going to progressively finer grit and finish with abrasive compound and polish. My brother did that to a set of C4 style A mold spokes and a set of C5 Z06 wheels. He had over 30 hours into each set but they looked great. If the wheels are coated with anything the coating has to be removed with stripper before you start sanding.

69autoXr

Are the Greenwoods polished? To me they appear to have a machined finish, or painted silver.

I prefer the cast center appearance. Mine are Team III's but are similar to yours with the painted cast center.

7t9l82

you can do it yourself but id find a metal polisher. if you need help finding one check your local harley shop. its a bit of work doing it by hand

gbvette62

I don't think they are polished. I'm pretty sure that they are painted silver.

I don't ever recall seeing a set of polished Minilites. Usually they are either painted silver, gold or gray.

The picture below is the Trans-Am Camaro, that I crewed on in the 80's. Our Minilites came painted gold.

7t9l82

that's because real minilites are magnisium not aluminum like the reproductions

cv67

I do a lot of aluminum polishing it isnt as easy as some would hope (not trying to discourage)
Nothing looks worse than a bad polish job
A good polish job will stay looking nice for a long time a not so great youll be on them a lot.
Youll spend more trying to get the stuff to do it right than if you just took them in somewhere and had a pro do them. If it cost 4-500 or so trust me its well worth it.

If youre dead set then try tarheelparts.com they have what youll need and can give expert advice.

cardo0

Hope this doesn't bust your bubble cotton but mine are 10 spoke and i count yours are only 8. I think mine were made by "Western" now owned by American Racing (but no longer in production).

FYI u buy the plastic center caps from any of the vendors (i used Ecklers) and have choice of insignia - cross flags anyone.

cardo0

3JsVette

As an alternative to polishing you may want to consider "chrome" powder coating which is a very bright silver.

cottoneg

Never thought to count. Greenwood is 8, mine 8. Have no idea what the original ones were. I think 7t9182 is correct. The original mini’s may have been made magnesium.

cottoneg

Excellent suggestion.

gbvette62

Real Minilite wheels are 8 spoke.

Original Minilites made in the 60's, were magnesium and came painted. In the 70's, Minilite came out with an aluminum version of the same 8 spoke magnesium wheel. Today, Minilites are usually made from aluminum, though I think they still occasionally make magnesium ones for racing.

The ones we ran on our TA Camaro, were aluminum. The spokes were painted gold and rims were natural aluminum. The vintage racing team, that I crew for now, has a 68 TA Camaro with early magnesium Minilites on it. On those wheels, the entire wheel is painted gray. I'm not sure if I have any pictures of the 68 Camaro, with the Minilites on it.

Depending when your wheels were made, they could be either aluminum or magnesium. You can polish them if they're aluminum, but if they're magnesium, a polished finish won't last. I agree that powered coating them would be a great way to go. The finish would last forever, and they'd look great.

gbvette62

This car belongs to Forum member Keystonefarm. They are real Minilites on his 66. I shot this picture about 35 years ago, at a Corvette show in Jenkintown PA. He still owns the car, and still has the Minilites on it.

He SCCA raced this car in the 60's and early 70's, and then put it back on the road. I don't know whether these are the earlier magnesium Minilites, but I suspect they are.

This picture does give you a good look at the Minilite's 8 spoke design.

3JsVette

what gbvette62 pointed out.
Take a look at this thread from the H.A.M.B. forum. It gives you a pretty good idea of why real Minilites are painted.
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/s...d.php?t=247870

FastEddy

once polished aluminum will show every water spot or stain, and will always look like they need to be polished, unless they just were.... That's been my experience anyway....

FastEddy

You'll find that some powder coaters wont coat aluminum unless it's new... being a such a porous surface, it's hard to guarantee they won't bubble later, because of corrosion down in the pores, that you can't get out.

noonie

As noted real ones are 8 spoke.
Originals still available in magnesium as an option
http://www.minilite.co.uk/

FastEddy

What size wheels and tires are you running?