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I started a little project of shining my aluminum rims to make them look like
chrome and had no idea what I was getting into. But none the less about 6 hours later, and 3/4 of a tub of Mother's chrome and magnesium polish, I may be about half way. And after all the work, I have really come to appreciate the idea of keeping them nice. I used to know a truck driver who polished his aluminum fuel tanks to a nice shine, and would put rain-x on them in between.
I think I'll try that rain-x and see how it works out unless someone has a better idea.
I started a little project of shining my aluminum rims to make them look like
chrome and had no idea what I was getting into. But none the less about 6 hours later, and 3/4 of a tub of Mother's chrome and magnesium polish, I may be about half way. And after all the work, I have really come to appreciate the idea of keeping them nice. I used to know a truck driver who polished his aluminum fuel tanks to a nice shine, and would put rain-x on them in between.
I think I'll try that rain-x and see how it works out unless someone has a better idea.
Find someone with an old "rag wheel" buffer... and put it on a pneumatic bluepoint buffer... (high speed) We used these in the old days for buffing cars before foam self sticking pads came about... If you use the newer foam pads they'll wear out way to fast.. the old rag wheels work perfectly and thank goodness I saved boxes of them from years ago. I just had a customer in the shop the other day asking pretty much the same question so I gave him three old rag pads...
Then get some 3M finesse-It... (I think it's been replaced by Finesse-It-II or another compound).. and buff a way.... You might want to seek a more aggressive compound for the first round.. but if the wheels are in good shape the finesse will work great! You'll be shocked at how quickly you can bring the wheels to a nice chrome luster.
Be sure to wear a smock because the compound will go wild on you if you don't... but this is the quickest way to get your wheels looking chrome.
If you want the look to last with little effort down the road wipe them down when done and put a good clear coat on the rim.
IMHO,
Willcox
Last edited by Willcox Corvette; 10-03-2017 at 10:36 PM.
Thanks for the tips. I can see that I'm going to end up going OCD over these rims and end up taking them off to get the area around the lugs really good. They do look nice when polished good. The front / right is near chrome now. The rear / right and front/ left are half way there. Then the last one has not yet been touched. I'm thinking once the initial polish is done, upkeep will not be too bad.
10-03-2017, 09:15 PM
C3 stock aluminum rims
