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Old Jan 20, 2021 | 02:23 PM
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Default alloy wheel polishing

looking at polishing my alloy wheels to a high standard what is the best way of going about this . cheers kev

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Old Jan 20, 2021 | 03:23 PM
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How to polish 1980 Aluminum wheels? - CorvetteForum - Chevrolet Corvette Forum Discussion
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Old Jan 21, 2021 | 07:10 PM
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Depends on what you mean by “high standard”.

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.
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Old Jan 21, 2021 | 08:19 PM
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Here's mine after hours and hours of sandpaper, buffing and polishing. Had to start with 400 grit the machining was so poor.


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