Polished Aluminum Questions

[jetice]

After acquiring some new wheels that are polished aluminum, I sat down with some Mothers Mag & Aluminium polish on a Power Cone, and went to town (the wheels are starting off as more of a driver quality). Most of the shallower defects are coming right out, but I noticed light scratches where left on the wheel, undoubtedly from the mag & alum polish. So what do you guys use to get the aluminum to a mirror shine? Would a multi-stage process yield even better results?

[bigjon88]

Wet sand the clear

[jetice]

The wheels do not have clear on them.

[Darren]

wet sand the aluminum then, that is what we did with mine, my wheels have no clear. We wet sanded them and then polished the CRAP out of them.

[jetice]

What grits did you use? Do you have any closeups of how they turned out?

[bigjon88]

1000 1500 polish

[bigjon88]

We use some never dull as well I would go to 2000

[jetice]

I will try this on the backside of on of the spokes.

[Darren]

1000 1500 polish

we used 2000 as well.

We use some never dull as well I would go to 2000

Jon is right we also used never dull too.

It's hard to take a close up photo I dont think any of mine turned out that great when I tried to take a picture.



Its hard to tell in that picture as well, but this was somewhere in the process I forget when but I know it was before the final polish. I think this is when we were still experimenting with the wet sand, so this has a light polish on it. You get the point.

EDIT: If you look at the spokes you still can see the small scratches those all came out once the whole wheel was wetsanded with 2000, just trying to take a picture of the lip here.

[WMCCjames]

Is it a cast wheel or billet forging? Cast wheels will never polish up to a mirror like shine like billet will. I would use 2000 wet and then to your mag polish then to billet polish.

[jetice]

Just the person I was hoping would post They are billet. I didn't know that there was a difference between mag & alum polish versus billet polish. Guess I will have to find some billet polish.

edit: The only billet-specific product I can find is Mothers Billet Metal Polish. Is this what you use?

[Darren]

James is a resident Wheel guy when it comes to high $$ wheels

Yeah get the right stuff Jentry!

[WMCCjames]

Yep, mother's billet polish is the absolute best for getting all the superfine swirls/scratches out. The mag polish is a bit coarser so use that first. Also...microfiber cloth only for the final billet polish. Never let the the billet polish dry on the aluminum or else it doesn't work as well. My old wheels had such a fine finish on them that you could literally see scratches in them if you touched them with your bare fingers. It was nuts! Glad those days are over.

[SS4Matt]

I've always used 2000 wet and then polished. sometimes if the wheels are really nasty, I'll take some compound and an old wool pad on a wheel to get a quick "shine" over the sanding, then follow up by hand. I like never dull for some things, but I prefer the mothers mag and alum polish. I've never used their billet polish (mostly because it's kinda pricey if I recall, and i've never had the urge to make something "that perfect") but I would say James is 100% correct to follow the mag/alum polish with the billet, and I use microfiber towels as well and just throw them away as I go

[jetice]

Thanks for the help