Tips on polishing aluminum?

[JMH1950]

Does anyone have any hints on shining up aluminum wheels?

I have a set of aluminum dish wheels on my truck that have been neglected badly. They are not corroded or pitted, just very dull and I'd like to polish them up. Is there any easy way to do this or is it one of those labour intensive jobs that take forever? (yes I'm lazy)

[harofreak00]

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[Gumball]

note: Electric drill and Powerball MINI the full size powerball doesnt get in to tight spaces well.

[wjcollier07]

x2 on both Andrew's and Jim's posts. Just about the only way to do it for that real shine to break out without breaking yourself.

[JMH1950]

Thanks, time to go shopping.

I havent seen the mini powerball before, hopefully I can find one locally.

[viper8907]

Im curious, as I have some rims I'd like to clean up also, do you put the polish on the wheel by hand and they use the ball to take it off? or how exactly do you go about it?

[harofreak00]

Use the ball as your polishing rag. Put a small amount of polish on the rim, or on the ball, but don't use full speed right away. The longer you do it, the better shine you are going to get.

[JMH1950]

Started on them today. I spent about 15 minutes on each front wheel, going to save the rears for tomorrow. (it's too darn hot out there)

After a good wash with aluminum cleaner:




Half done:



Good as it's going to get today:



I found that the Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish didn't do the trick righ of the bat so I used some Rolite polish I had. That took the worst of it off, then I used the Mothers. Once I do the rears, I'll give the power ball a good cleaning and start over again to get the high polish I want to end up with.

[harofreak00]

Looking good...

Make sure you wash out the powerball after each use...

[wjcollier07]

And don't forget those tires!!! Get a stiff brush and some simple green on those things! Bring out those while letters!

[corinne]

hello, this may not help cause i'm at home , not work where the stuff is kept and therefore i cannot remember the exact product name....but.... heres a good clue.....diamond plate cleaner. i'm a fire fighter/medic and we use this yellow liquid that is to clean the aluminum diamond plating on the fire engines and medic trucks. i used it on my bonnie's gold lace...........? baked on ? wheels. the left front wheel gets real dirty real quik and the right front gets fairly yuck too ( the rear wheels stay delightfully clean ) i liberally sprayed it on, let it sit a few and then brushed them with a wheel brush, dust/dirt came off in buckets (little sand buckets, hee hee), sprayed on again, let sit a few then power washed at fairly close range. i was impressed. no sore fingers wrapped in rags, no tooth brushes, bottle brushes etc. i did'nt even have to sit on the floor or squat, just used a long handled truck wheel brush. so there ya have it. it may be a 'zep' product, try on-line. i have use it at home in the manner stated above but only had a garden hose. turned the nozzle to straight stream and it even blasted off the grime. yeah! sorry to be so wordy, just me. hope this might help. p.s. i have new bonnie pics posted...under 'cool changes to the panther', check it out, bye now, corinne and panther

[Skippy1827]

That is quite the difference. Would it make sense to get a good coat of wax on them afterwards to make them easier to clean going forward?

[JMH1950]

That is quite the difference. Would it make sense to get a good coat of wax on them afterwards to make them easier to clean going forward?

When I get them to where I think there is no more shine to be had, then I'll put a few coats of wax on them and see what happens.

I think the trick is to NOT let them get in bad shape to begin with.

[alexcoqui]

What I did to make the job a lot easyer, & let me first say that it is dangerous. I lifted the car on to towers, put it on drive, & make the drill spin on the oposit direction. This way you dont have to move your hand in a sircular motion just leave it there pressing hard on the rim, & the longer you keep it there the more that area of the rim will shine.

[JMH1950]

What I did to make the job a lot easyer, & let me first say that it is dangerous. I lifted the car on to towers, put it on drive, & make the drill spin on the oposit direction. This way you dont have to move your hand in a sircular motion just leave it there pressing hard on the rim, & the longer you keep it there the more that area of the rim will shine.

I'm not that adventuresome. I might jack up the wheel so I can spin it by hand to keep the work area at the bottom but the engine is going to be stopped.

[Skippy1827]

What I did to make the job a lot easyer, & let me first say that it is dangerous. I lifted the car on to towers, put it on drive, & make the drill spin on the oposit direction. This way you dont have to move your hand in a sircular motion just leave it there pressing hard on the rim, & the longer you keep it there the more that area of the rim will shine.

I am getting images of Ferris Bueller on this one

[Gumball]

Wow John, those are 85% better already. I have a friend with rims just like them on his ford truck. maybe a little worse off than yours but I will have to show him these pics to let him know they can be brought back to life.

cudo's

[JMH1950]

It seems with the "mother's" mag and alumimum polish I can only get so far. I can't get the high gloss I want.

I was mentioning this to the guy that power washes the trucks at work and he showed me what he uses. It's a product called "Wicked metal polish". He took a rag, poured some polish on the rag and wiped it onto the wheel. He just let it sit there till it dried then wiped it off with a clean rag and then wiped again with another clean rag. There was the shine I wanted!!

Unfortunatly he only did one wheel and I can't find anywhere around that sells the stuff.

I'm going to hit some truck shops today, the guy at the local auto parts place says he thinks he seen it there. Or I can wait untill I see the power wash guy again and talk him out of some.

[clm2112]

I'm going to check around here for the stuff as well. Been using Mothers for years, time to try something new. The diamond plate cleaner mentioned above sounds interesting as well. (I've got a bunch of aluminum and stainless bits on the boat to clean up for re-installation...my arms are already hurting just thinking about it )

[JMH1950]

According to their website most truck stops (flying J, TA, etc) carry the product. No truck stops anywhere on this island of mine so my best bet is truck shops, three of them close by.