How do I make my polished aluminum wheels shine like new again ?

T

TriPinTaZ

New member
I have Polished aluminum ZR1 rims, they looked great for the first couple of months. But I went about 3 month without polishing them, all i did was clean them with every car wash. Now they dont shine like new anymore and have water spots and small black spots in soem areas.



I have Mother Mag polish and the Billet polish....but these two products barely get the water spots off ! and the shine ? WHAT SHINE ? these 2 products didnt add one ounce of shine ! they are both GARBAGE in my opinion. I even tried hte rubber glove method to make sure the cotton terry towel i was using wasnt micro scratching them......NO LUCK at all. The stuff works great on my polished exhaust tips but does nothing for my rims.



What can I do ??? what product do I use ? and when thats done what do I protect them with?





....I may be on teh Poorboys product test for the aluminum protectant sooon. But if not I need to knwo what to pretect them with.
 
TriPinTaZ said:
I have Polished aluminum ZR1 rims, they looked great for the first couple of months. But I went about 3 month without polishing them, all i did was clean them with every car wash. Now they dont shine like new anymore and have water spots and small black spots in soem areas.



I have Mother Mag polish and the Billet polish....but these two products barely get the water spots off ! and the shine ? WHAT SHINE ? these 2 products didnt add one ounce of shine ! they are both GARBAGE in my opinion. I even tried hte rubber glove method to make sure the cotton terry towel i was using wasnt micro scratching them......NO LUCK at all. The stuff works great on my polished exhaust tips but does nothing for my rims.



What can I do ??? what product do I use ? and when thats done what do I protect them with?





....I may be on teh Poorboys product test for the aluminum protectant sooon. But if not I need to knwo what to pretect them with.
Click to expand...



Did the Mag & Aluminum Polish turn black as soon as you started using it?



And, if the finish was neglected, I wouldn't expect Billet Polish to do much - it's a much finer polish made for flawless finishes.



How long did you work the Mag Polish before buffing the residue off?



Needless to say, I take exception with the statement both products are garbage. Do you have any pictures you can post?
 
forrest said:
Did the Mag & Aluminum Polish turn black as soon as you started using it?



And, if the finish was neglected, I wouldn't expect Billet Polish to do much - it's a much finer polish made for flawless finishes.



How long did you work the Mag Polish before buffing the residue off?



Needless to say, I take exception with the statement both products are garbage. Do you have any pictures you can post?
Click to expand...



yes it started to turn black.



I tried both for atleast 30-60 seconds



iguess i will try the high speed route before I throw the towel in on these products.
 
If the cloth started to turn black , its doing its job. It may take awhile to get the shine acceptable to your standards but give it a chance and work the product / spot for a longer time. The black your pulling helps with the polishing process too, or atleast it has in my experience.
 
TriPinTaZ said:
I have Polished aluminum ZR1 rims, they looked great for the first couple of months. But I went about 3 month without polishing them, all i did was clean them with every car wash. Now they dont shine like new anymore and have water spots and small black spots in soem areas.



I have Mother Mag polish and the Billet polish....but these two products barely get the water spots off ! and the shine ? WHAT SHINE ? these 2 products didnt add one ounce of shine ! they are both GARBAGE in my opinion. I even tried hte rubber glove method to make sure the cotton terry towel i was using wasnt micro scratching them......NO LUCK at all. The stuff works great on my polished exhaust tips but does nothing for my rims.



What can I do ??? what product do I use ? and when thats done what do I protect them with?





....I may be on teh Poorboys product test for the aluminum protectant sooon. But if not I need to knwo what to pretect them with.
Click to expand...



What was the level of shine when they were new? Was it a mirror finish or just a bright machined finish? Think of some tanker trucks on the highway: some have a bright finish on the tanker while others are polished to a mirror finish.



Do you want a mirror finish? If so, you have to start with a more aggressive polish than Mother's Billet or Meguiar's. They are primarily for mirror finish metal and contain little or no aggressive compounds. You can try Mother's Aluminum or Wenol Red and a cotton buffing wheel drill attachment. Saves fingers and time.



Holler with a response and I can try to help. I used to be in the plating and polishing business.
 
Both Mother's products are great. It's not the fault of the product that you let the metal condition deteriorate.



They will not clean up in a couple of minutes...may take a couple of hours.
 
I used to use a product called Noxin9. You can find it at the grocery store or Wal-Mart. It's for polishing silver, but it worked great for me. Powerful stuff.
 
As Acuracl98 said, using a product for 30-60 seconds is not enough time to polish up a bare aluminum wheel, especially one that hasn't been polished up in several months.



I'd suggest working an area for 4-6 minutes before buffing it clean and moving to the next section. Plan on 4-6 sections per wheel.



I'd use the Mag Polish first, then redo with Billet Polsh for the best finish.
 
His wheels already are pretty shiny.



taznewrim1.jpg
 
thanks for the information guys, I have ordered the Blue and Green heavy metal polish and I Im going to swing by home depot and see if they have any polishing wheels for my drill. I have a dremel and polishing wheels but they are too small, it would take forever.
 
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