Refinishing help please

[wheelfetish]

I picked up a set of style 19s a few months ago. 3 lips are already polished, 1 is not. I picked up 400-2000 grit sand paper, polishing kit, and all the goodies. Ive been using beemerbuyer diy and boostedcorrados diy, and have a few simple questions.

Should I sand in small circular motions, or go along with the lip?

I also started to re-do the centers. I was planning on polishing them so I stripped off 80% of the clear. Then, I changed my mind and wanted to paint them dark metallic grey. Since theres some clear coat left on, I was planning on sandblasting them to get all the clearcoat/dark spots out and them sanding them up to 400 grit before applying the primer. Good idea or not? Should I just sand them down a bit then primer and forget about sandblasting them?

[mpv]

I picked up a set of style 19s a few months ago. 3 lips are already polished, 1 is not. I picked up 400-2000 grit sand paper, polishing kit, and all the goodies. Ive been using beemerbuyer diy and boostedcorrados diy, and have a few simple questions.

Should I sand in small circular motions, or go along with the lip?

I also started to re-do the centers. I was planning on polishing them so I stripped off 80% of the clear. Then, I changed my mind and wanted to paint them dark metallic grey. Since theres some clear coat left on, I was planning on sandblasting them to get all the clearcoat/dark spots out and them sanding them up to 400 grit before applying the primer. Good idea or not? Should I just sand them down a bit then primer and forget about sandblasting them?

dont do circular when sanding especially with the lower grit paper as circle marks are hard to get out.


As far as sanding the centers go I would just use a da to get any imperfections out of the surface. Once you have a nice smooth surface lay down your primer. Once the primer has dried you will want to knock the primer coat down and then wet sand. Once you have a silky smooth surface then you can paint.

[wheelfetish]

dont do circular when sanding especially with the lower grit paper as circle marks are hard to get out.


As far as sanding the centers go I would just use a da to get any imperfections out of the surface. Once you have a nice smooth surface lay down your primer. Once the primer has dried you will want to knock the primer coat down and then wet sand. Once you have a silky smooth surface then you can paint.

Ok, thanks.

[1badg35]

sand with the lip. make sure that you start with the appropriate grit. i would use aircraft stripper, and only use as heavy as you need to. on my recent refurb of RSs, i started with 600,1200,2000,2500, and then went to fine steel wool. then polishing process

only go as rough as you have blemishes, if you can take them out with 320 instead of 150, do it.

[dubbed_up_daz]

go to 2500 then buy micro mesh paper,its mainly used by jewellers and goes up to 20,000grit

[wheelfetish]

I just finished polishing the lip. It still isn't a mirror like finish, its kind of cloudy. Im not sure what I did wrong, I followed all the diy steps. Since it was only 1 rim that needed polish, I took my time and didn't half ass it.

[Neb]

what tools are you using to buff it? And what compounds? Sanding gets it smooth, buffing makes it shine

[wheelfetish]

what tools are you using to buff it? And what compounds? Sanding gets it smooth, buffing makes it shine

I got a polishing kit from sears (craftman). Thats the ONLY kit I could find locally. I went to home depo, lowes, walmart, target, and sears was the only place that had one with all the compounds. They gave me 3 buffing wheels that attach to a drill, red, black, brown, white compounds.

After wet sanding to 2000 grit, I used the brown compound (direction said that it was to polish aluminum). So after using that, the lip turned to like a burnt metal look. You know how when you heat metal, it turns dark/blackish, well thats what it looked like. Then I used the white compound (was suppose to give aluminum a shiny finish). That cleared the dark/blacking parts up and I was left with a almost mirror like finish. Then I used my mothers mag aluminum polish twice.

After all of that, it still came out cloudy.

[Neb]

Well from my experience a drill usually isn't powerful enough to get a mirror finish. when I do polishing I have a 20,000rpm buffing motor to get the good shine. It also depends on the material that it's made of. softer lips I had a lot of trouble polishing but harder lips (rs lips for example) came out mint with less work needed.