KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

Is there anything I can do to make my SS/SC 18's to make them look Mirror polish to chrome? I bought them awhile back, they look ok, but I want that chrome feel to them. Anything I can do to make'em that way?

OriGinaL Condo

iTrader: (3)

buy the polished ones? lol

dandaman15

Its easier if the tires off the rim but youd have to strip all the paint off with Aircraft remover, make sure all the aircraft remover is off, then sand the hell out of them. Start at like 400 grit, get all of it done which will probably take about an hour by hand per rim. Then move to like 600 and do the same thing, 800 then 1000 and then wetsand at 1000. It takes a long time unless you have like a palm sander then it can go fairly fast. After you sanded them then you need to do the polishing and buffing. After you have the mirror finish you can get them powder coated clear to keep them shiny, or you will have to repolish them every so often because it fades. Theres a great write up on Honda-tech Ill try to find.

http://www.honda-tech.com/showthread.php?t=1259115

chris88z24

Claybar, polish, wax.

They're clear coated so there really is only so much you can do with them.

ryaan

1) buy a mag/aluminum wheel polish
2) use it on the wheels
3) profit????

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

Yeah well I have a sander at the house will it make the process go a little faster? Of course I don't mind if it's by hand also. Is there certain kinds of buffer I need? Or chemical while I'm buffer threw each grit? I need to buy a good buffer. Anything else I'm going to need for this process sounds like it could take a long while

chris88z24

Failure will ensue

Treat them like you would the paint on your car. Like I said, they're clear coated, so if you use mag polish on them you could damage the clear and pit the wheels, making them look like absolute ****

jimbos'ss

iTrader: (2)

took me like 2 weeks of all my spare time to do this, to much work imo

ItalianJoe1

iTrader: (10)

Yeah, it's a lot of work to polish wheels yourself. Better off to pay someone who does it for a living, they will come out much nicer and it's just not worth the time it takes to do them yourself if you've never done it. I polish crap all the time at work, it's super time consuming, and that's with all the tools and supplies you need, several sanders/buffers, etc. Doing it by hand at home, i'd shoot myself. I don't even want to finish the LSJ valve cover I started, i've wetsanded to 1500, just gotta do 2000 and polish, but it takes so long to make it look nice.

Also, polished aluminum never has a deep shine, and it doesn't hold. As mentioned above, you have to clear coat them after or they will fade rapidly, and unless you really take your time and know what to do, aluminum tends to look milky/cloudy when polished. Most people don't realize it, but compare it to polished stainless, which has a true mirror finish and stays that way, and polished aluminum looks like crap.

Wheels are best left painted, IMO, or have them professionally polished.

Bluelightning

iTrader: (8)

It goes fast if you use a palm sander. Start off with a heavy grit to get the clearcoat and paint off quickly. I would suggest like 100 grit. Yes it seems like alot but the clearcoat clogs the sandpaper like mad and it takes alot less time. It's the initial getting the paint and clearcoat off that sucks *****. Then work you're way up. 220, 400, 600 and wetsand with 1000 grit. Do it all with a palm sander. Wayyy less effort and will turn out glass smooth. If you want polishing to be a breeze and mirror finish take a grinder and go to any 18 wheeler shop and buy a buffing wheel they use to polish wheels and tanks as well as a polishing bar compound. You'll be black by the end of polishing all of them but it will look mint and save you a whole lot of time. Then give them a quick hand polish with some mothers and you're all done. But sanding the inserts will be a pain. Personally i would just leave them gunmetal. The nice thing about the SS/SC rim is it's flat. Super easy to work with

P.S I like chrome if you havent noticed lol

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

That's true, yeah I personnally like Chrome myself, just these rims where a steal, I'm not the impatient type so I'm willing to take my time to get it done right the first time. I was thinking about what has been mention once there mirror polished to powder coat them so I don't have to worry about doing the process over and over again. I understand that mirror polished aluminum isn't like chrome and doesn't give that true reflectivity like chrome, but I personnally think my 2.4L looks better with polished than alloy.

So what type of mother's polish do I need?

Bluelightning

iTrader: (8)

You arent going to powdercoat them you are going to want to get them clearcoated if you don't want to do them over and over again. But i wouldn't use a rattle can clear. Get an actual body shop to clear em to do it right. Just get mothers aluminum polish

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

Awesome man, yeah I guess it wouldn't cost too much if that's all I wanted for them to do is clear coat it, the next question would be where's the nearest place that'll do it. It's funny how I already converted all my tire pressure sensors to the SS/SC rims and valve stems. Right now I have my stock 17's on and I'm getting that annoying SVS monitor alarm again ( don't think there's any way of getting rid of that ). When they did the job at walmart they just put on the regular stems on my stocks. I do own a palm sander just have to see how this is going to turn out. How much is it for one of those powder coaters anyways? I've checked online and some are $50 and others are for over a $1000.

Is there anything i can do for my caps? They all scratched up and I can't use my stock ones because there bigger.

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

Well so far this is what I have done the results arent that impressive like I like them to be but I'll have to try again tomorrow and by some more 600 grit, I finally manage to buy a palm sander, is it possible I need to start off with 220 grit first then work my way up all the way with a the sander or just wet sand with each grit?
How long does it take with each grit using the sand palmer? I know by hand 1 hour per grit

Day 1 400,600 grit



Day 2 600,800,1000 grit



The polished one is on the left side

Bluelightning

iTrader: (8)

Dude... did you not read my reply... Start with a heavy grit to get the clearcoat and paint off. Looks tough to tell if you have or not by you're pics, i think you do. But you got wayyyy more sanding to do. Doesnt look like you've done any wet sanding. Thats the key. It will take alot less time with a palm sander and give you a much smoother surface. You have to get all those deep scratches out then wet sand the crap out of it so you see no scratches at all. Just smooth aluminum. THEN polish

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

Oh man your awesome, I finally got it down without wet sanding, just went threw the grits I had to use up to 2000 grit but I got that mirror finish I been looking for I'll post up a pic of it, now my next question is it possible to grit down the edges of the rim instead of the star?

Nighthawk243

Sandblast, get chrome plated.

redfox

Once you get them looking the way you want then an easy way to maintian them is with a flitz buff ball and some good polish.

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

yeah I'll have to do that, yeah I'm gonna invest in a powder coat gun so I can clear coat the crap out of them. It's been very time consuming but I'm finally getting the results I want lol

Bluelightning

iTrader: (8)

There ya go! Lookin good! If you keep up on them and don't leave them for a long time it's very easy to keep them looking good without having to clearcoat them

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

Yeah man thanks for the advice, I manage to do two rims out of four, I won't be able to get started again until Friday, here are some more pics

Day two:

One mirror polish, other one not


More pics



The hardest part was doing the edges, the star was the easy part only issues I had was rather at 600 or 1000 grit in some areas it took away the mirror, I just use aluminum polish from 1000 grit on it really helps improve the shine

ryaan

are the sc wheels not shiny and chromey looking like the on ss/na's right out of the factory?

Bluelightning

iTrader: (8)

07 they were. 05 and 06 were gunmetal

ryaan

aahhh. sucks. thats such a pain to get a mirror finish, should have tried to trade rims instead lol.

KoriCobalt

iTrader: (20)

yeah that's true, but the mirror finish looks different from chrome. It's almost like an actual mirror in my eyes. I wanna finish them off so I can use them on the road, after I'm done with these next up are the tires, apparently when I got these one tire doesn't pass inspection standards, only two of them look descent, I might go with toyo tires or something plus there not the right size for my car, I go 1.5 mph ( size 215/45/R18) faster so I don't wanna really screw up the speedometer