alloy wheel polishing
Basic - thoroughly clean. Use a good household cleaner like 409. For road tar/grease that is a bit stubborn, I’ve used WD40 sparingly. Get a tin of SimiChrome polish and apply with liberal elbow action. Apply a coat of wax within an hour.
OCD level - clean as above. Assess pits, scratches, gouges, etc. Carefully file down with jewelers files. Sand out wet with progressively finer grits, ending up with 2500 grit. I typically have used 400, 600, 1000, 1500, 2000 then 2500. Polish with Simichrome and wax.
My nearly 50 year old American 200s wheels have a semi-smooth machined surface so never will look like a mirror but these have been restored using the basic process I outlined above.
Last edited by 69L88; Jan 21, 2021 at 10:32 PM.














