Polishing machined rims to a mirror finish
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My Gen-1 Insight has those boring OEM machined rims with a clear coat. Not only is the clear coat chipping and peeling off the rims, but I just don't really like the machined look. I curbed my wife's brand new polished aluminum rim a couple of weeks ago on her Explorer and need to fix it, so I figured I'd practice on my rims, and get the mirrored look I want at the same time! Steps to change a machined rim to a polished mirror finish: 1- Pull rim from car, lay flat and clean off all the dirt, carbon, etc . . . 2- spray on citrus based paint stripper, leave on for 20 minutes 3- Using a scrub brush, loosen the gelled clear coat, then rinse off and dry the rim 4- Using a mouse, sand the entire rim with higher and higher grit of sand paper. I started with 200 grit, paying special attention to the lip of the rim, which had a lot of curb rash. I ended up wet-sanding with 600 grit, only because I couldn't find higher grit paper. Would have been easier if I had finished with 1000, or even 2000 grit 5- Using an orbital buffer and polishing compound, buff the entire rim until very smooth (this takes a while depending on the final grit of the sand paper!) 6- Using a cone buffer with handle on a corded drill, buff out all the grooved & curved areas the orbital buffer can't reach. You can really get some torque with that handle. Keep rinsing off the build-up as you go. 7- Using a buffing wheel on a corded drill, polish the rim to a mirror shine 8- laying the rim flat, spray it with two light coats of clear coat (deck of cheap playing cards spaced around the perimeter keeps paint off the tire) 9- re-mount rim, and enjoy the new look! Total time spent, about 2 hours, but the next ones will go way quicker since this was the experimental rim. Total cost, about 40 bucks, but I have enough supplies left over to do the rest of my rims and my wife's. Well worth the time, effort and expense. I will have the only set of polished Gen-1 Insight rims on the planet when I finish the rest next weekend! |
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One of these little guys...??? http://i536.photobucket.com/albums/f...ps01354521.jpg PETA would probably have a problem with this... ;) :p Seriously. What are you calling a mouse ? Nice repair job on the rim... :thumbup: > |
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Went through a couple of them, good thing they breed like mice . . . . . |
I'd start with a fine scotch brite wheel on my Makita 5 amp electric drill, same one I used to build two houses. If the curb rash was really bad. I'd hit that with a file first.
Final polishing with my cheap chinese variable speed buffer, $10 from harbor freight. regards mech |
I'd say it would work for any rims that are some kind of alloy. I'm not even sure if my rims are aluminum or magnesium, but it definitely worked great.
When I do the rest of them, I'll spend a little more up-front time sanding and I'll find some higher grit sand paper, like 2000 grit, so the end work doesn't take so long. Two thirds of the time I spent was buffing! |
3 Attachment(s)
Finished the second Insight rim today! Got it clear-coated up, and then I was on to the huge challenge of fixing the deeply scarred rim of my wife's brand new Explorer, which I had curbed a couple of weeks ago while pulling my lawn service trailer (which she was not very happy about!)
I used my Insight's rims as practice so I was a little better at the process before tackling hers, and the result was that her rim ended up looking amazing! I used the same steps as before, except her rim was so trashed that I took old mech's advice and started with a file (this cut the time roughly in half, I highly recommend this step! RIP, tire:( That was a 200 dollar learning experience, but I guess it could have been worse since a re-manufactured 20" rim like hers goes for about 350 bucks! Quote:
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Just how tall was that curb?
You know they're oxidizing again already, right? I went looking for info on Zoop Seal. It turns out it's gone, the new procduct is Shineseal™. Zoop Seal is no more.... A post in that thread in that forum lists similar products that cost a lot less: Quote:
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I know, right? Curb was actually a culvert. I cut a corner too tight since there were cars parked on the other side of the narrow street, and wha-bam screeeee thunk!
I tried to clear coat that rim, but the clear coat kept running, so I stripped the clear coat back off and applied a good layer of wax on it. Man that thing sucks to try to clear coat cause of all the sharp angles. I might have to take it to a paint booth and have them shoot it on for me (so she doesn't drive me nuts) |
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