Polishing lips, DIY

[xGmoneyx]

yeah that foam applicator will work on water stains if you use it with a drill.

ALWAYS dry your raw polished wheels off after making sure there is no more soap anywhere near them.

protip: wax or seal the lips so water beads up and doesnt make contact with the raw aluminum.

So the mother's billet would do the job? and u said the cone would be better than doing it by hand right? should I finish off the job with something else or after I'm done I'm good to go?

[Jesus Christ]

yeah that foam applicator will work on water stains if you use it with a drill.

ALWAYS dry your raw polished wheels off after making sure there is no more soap anywhere near them.

protip: wax or seal the lips so water beads up and doesnt make contact with the raw aluminum.

[xGmoneyx]

i use that to refresh my wheels.

get which ever the foam one is, not the bullet that has flaps and shit.

it will probably work to apply rouge or a good polish but ive never tried.

Well this is how my wheels look like after I washed the car, I used the wheel soap and brush, I know that was stupid of me but I was in a rush and wanted to wash my car...

I actually purchased the mother's billtet since everyone told me that would do the job. I still have not yet to polish a wheel, been lazy..lol

[Jesus Christ]

How about using mother's billet? is that a good product? I'm assuming using the cone would make the job easier right?

i use that to refresh my wheels.

get which ever the foam one is, not the bullet that has flaps and shit.

it will probably work to apply rouge or a good polish but ive never tried.

[xGmoneyx]

How about using mother's billet? is that a good product? I'm assuming using the cone would make the job easier right?

[cRichardson]

Oh my! You almost scared me to death. I've read the topic of this thread and saw 'polishing lips'. I thought that I missed something. But then I realized what you mean. facepalm.

[Vito]

Can you go head and use these steps on an aluminum manifold. im looking for the "Polished" look under the hood and it seems like this would work pretty well...let me know, thanks

[C.Johnston]

i don't know, i used the safe strip and never bothered with anything else... ive used poly supa strippa but it sucks, burns your skin and smells like shit lol.. ive heard aircraft stripper is good but ive never used it.. i like the "green" stuff ... you can get it at home depot

[yotatuner]

thanks for the tip c.Johnston I have lm's and want to strip them beacouse the clear looks dull but they have no curb rash. so im gonna strip them and then polish them
any good stripers out there other than Dumond Smart Strip

[.Mad Hatter.]

Great, thanks for the tip, I will try less compound and see how that goes.

[C.Johnston]

sounds like too much brown/white on the mop(s).. try using a rasp to resurface the mop, reapply desired polish and try again.. if not, just skip it and use some metal polish called Diamond Brite Truck Box Polish you can get at Lowes (Warden/Eglinton store has some)
- Chris


What do you do when you strip your wheels and they are in good shape? Here's some of my strategies to get that deeper shine..
- I stripped my lips from my Volks (circa 1996).. They were in good shape other than the machining marks... I don't care about the machining marks too much as I will DD the wheels through rain, dirt, etc...

Strip lips using Dumond Smart Strip. It has no VOC (no smell), non caustic, and 100% biodegradable... which means you can use it in doors and it hardly smells and you can put it down the drain afterwards.
Just brush it on, easy, it's like yogurt.

Once it dries up and starts working it looks like this....


This is what a stripped one looks like against a non-stripped.


Then I hit it with 1000 wet sand to remove some of the machining marks.


Then 2000 wet...


By choosing wet over dry it reduces clumping of alum oxide in your paper.. hot water makes the paper wet up faster.

Then all I did after 2000 was hand polish with Diamond Brite Truck Box Polish.. best polish out there IMO. Hardly takes any time at all with this polish no joke.
Factory Volk finish VS polished

Volk VS polished

[.Mad Hatter.]

Question for you guys; I have often worked up through grits to 2000 wet, and then gone to a 3 stage polish compound (black, brown, white in that order) before finally finishing with mothers polish. The black compound works really well but the brown and white seem to almost melt into the wheel and the pad. Any thoughts on why this might happen? I have varied my speed but no matter what the result is the same.

[a3 german]

this could help someone. that's what I've done on my ZW2..

5€ this product:



after 10min...



and the result:



very easy, and do what haave to be done.

[ScottNicolas]

Has there been made a vid as mentioned in 1st post?

I've got a few questions for you guys..

1. What buffs do you use? Where can I get them? (ebay or online store)
2. The 3M wax which is recommended.. is it this one? http://dennysautoparts.com/assets/im...6_31989898.jpg
4. Any recommendation of great polishing products in general? To generate a kit

I've got lots of wheels to be polished.. and I've got hold of wheel hubs(cut of wrecked cars) with the bolt patterns I want. I am making a bracket where I bolt the wheel on the hub and it will rotate. Will perhaps add an electic motor with belt/wheel to turn the rim around, would be very helpfull when sanding! I'll post up pictures when I've made it!

[coolgraymemo]

Just finished one of mine.
It was pretty dull after having sanded them from 400-2000 and then steel wool. Started polishing them (with Meguiars) and they got really shinny.

So, I assume you should sand them up to whatever grit you like, and then bust out the polish.