What do you guys & gals use for your aluminum wheels?

 

I've had really good luck with Adams metal polish 1 & 2

http://www.adamspolishes.com/p-68-ad...al-polish.aspx

 

I've used Mothers in the past with good results

 

For maintaining a shine and ease of application (with rubber gloves on of course) Nevr Dull works great. http://www.nevrdull.com/

If you're dealing with a real mess Simichrome is still one of the best but it's work.

 

 

the mothers aluminum polish works great for me

 

Mothers Billet polish works well for me.

 

me too! mothers aluminum polish! Ron

 

theres shine like a mothers shine thats what i use

 

I did a comparison once on my stock aluminum wheels...Mothers, Never Dull and Blue Magic....The Blue Magic produced very noticable superior shine... IMHO.

 

 

There are many fine products on the market and we all have our favourites. I like 3M Mag and Aluninum Polish. A little hard to find as it is a commercial/bodyshop product but NAPA can source it.

 

I tried and LOVED Meguiar's Hot Rims polish. Ironically, I found it and ordered it from Amazon.com. It really puts a shine to aluminum wheels...makes them look almost chrome-like. When I used it, I got more comments on how shiny my wheels were than ever before....even after using Mothers.....

AND it smells great....like cinnamon

 

I found Gord's Aluminum Polish enthusiastically endorsed on another forum. I got some and used it on my badly oxidized wheels. When used with a lambs wool buffing pad on a polisher it brings the shine back in a matter of a few minutes. After I buffed it I went over it with more polish by hand to get them even brighter.

In contrast I have used NevrDull and Mother's with a Powerball. NevrDull works but is very labor intensive if your wheels are in bad shape. I never got the Mothers polish to do much of anything. I'd recommended pulling your wheels off for this. It will save you a lot of work in the long run.

While there are probably a number of good alternative products out there I will testify this works. Check it out here: http://gordsaluminumpolish.com/. Be sure to watch the video demonstrations. They are for real.

This is a homegrown product developed by a truck driver for his own rig so don't be put off by the crappy website. This stuff really works as shown.

 

I got very good results on my clearcoated (but age-yellowed) aluminum wheels on my '81 from Busch Enterprises in Statesville, NC. (www.buschshineproducts.com)

Clear Coat Remover (to remove the old clearcoat completely)
Aluminum Wash (remove oxidation)
Super Shine Aluminum Polish (nearly chrome-like luster)
Aluminum Wax & Sealant (to protect new shine)

Aside from normal car washing, I retreat with the polish and wax & sealant twice a year.

 

I'm getting new tires so I decided to polish the rims after removing the old tires. In hindsite, I could have done it all in a couple of hours. I wasted many hours "learning".

I did read the forum before I started.

I used the aircraft stripper to get all the road grime and any old clear coat off the rims, front and back. The aircraft stripper did not hurt the rims. I am told any product with methanol works great at stripping the old clear coat. Use gloves, wear long sleeves and long pants, wear boots, wear safety glasses, etc. Cheap gloves do not last long. I used some 00 steel wool to scrape off the stripper. Some people use water at a distance. I used laquer thinner and steel wool. It ate through the gloves. I was wearing three golves on each hand at one time to get a bit of cleaning time. This is the most time consuming part of the process.

Then the fun starts. 3M makes a gray 3" roloc that is used for polishing aluminum cylinder heads, removing old gasket material, etc. I used one 3" roloc pad in the die grinder to clean the bead area of all 4 rims. Then I used the same pad to polish the front of all 4 rims. I wore it out in the lug area of the last rim. This goes fast and fun. The rims look great after this step; but you can tell they need something. They shine but they are not a mirror yet.

I just bought a 6" sears polisher and some new bonnets so I decided to try the following:

Mothers
Eagle One nevr-dull Wadding Polish
Black Magic Titanium Wheel Polish
Star bright Aluminum Polish

I tried various combinations of polishes and bonnets on the 4 rims.

I had a cotton bonnet, wool bonnet, synthetic bonnet, etc.

I wasted a bunch of time messing with all this. I wish I had just bought 2 cotton bonents and the can of mothers polish. I like that the best.

I tried using mothers first and Eagle One second.

I tried using Eagle One first and mothers second.

The Star bright aluminum polish is only good is you have oxidized aluminum and you don't have time to polish them. It is not much of an abrasive. You just spray it on and wipe it off. It will brighten bad aluminum with no work at all. It is the wrong product for making aluminum rims into mirrors.

The mothers, Eagle One, and Black Magic are all abrasive polishes that you can work against the aluminum with the polisher in one direction to turn the paste black and then buff off in the other direction to reveal a mirror like finish.

I wish I could report some fancy two stage polishing act using a combination of bonnets and paste; but I could not tell much difference.

I did all 4 rims with Mothers at the end because I thought it did the best.

They say the wool bonnet is the best for the final polish, I could not tell a difference. I did like the wool bonnet under the cotton bonnet to give it the padding needed for the curvature of these corvette rims.

I could have done this all in under 2 hours with the right knowledge and equipment. I took my time and learned something while having fun. They gray 3M roloc was fun to use. I could see the aluminum come to life! Without this step, I can imagine it would have been alot of work with the paste to get a mirror finish. Do not use a red, brown, or blue roloc. We use these for removing rust and cleaning up steel. You will scratch aluminum with these roloc pads. The box says grade/grain S SFN. Finishmasters knows them as Gray Roloc for polishing aluminum. Machine shops use them.

My biggest waste of time was in my attempt to remove the black paint from the slots. The 1981 I just bought has 3 of one style of rims "Rockwell" and one of another style. From the front, they look identical. From the back, there is a big difference. The black paint does not come off the 1981 "Rockwell" rims. It must be a teflon coating or something. I wasted alot of time fussing with this. My buddy said... once you go black, you can never go back. I wanted to prove him wrong so bad. I saw some awesome pictures on this forum of these C3 corvette rims with raw aluminum in the slots and I wanted that look. That one rim gave it to me easy after the first use of the aircraft stripper. The other three rims never gave me bare aluminum in the slots even after the third bath in aircraft stripper. I spent an hour scraping two slots and did a crappy job and I got to thinking, 3 rims, 8 slots per rim, 30 minutes per slot, 12 hours of scraping slots... so I just painted all the slots back black.

Painting slots black is quick and easy. Get wide masking tape and tape all 8 slots on the front of the rim. Press the tape on good so you can see the outline of the slot. Then just spray the slots from the back. It is tricky to get the spray into all the angles. The Rockwell rims were easier than the other one. The slots look tiny from the back of the other rim. Hard to spray the hub surface of the slot. Get the rims hot and use the heat lamp so the paint does not run. I used flat black and did not worry so much for a smooth paint job. At this point, I just wanted quick and black. My next thought was a brush; but after three coats of spray, the flat black looks great and is ready for some brake dust!

 

From the General forum, a good discussion on the topic.

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c3-g...fter-pics.html

Btw - Mothers Mag and Aluminum for me.

 

Recently bought a can of this terrific polish. Without question, THE BEST polish I have ever used......and I've tried them all.