Need to know the best way to polish the lips on my wheels. They are painted wheels but there is enough area to polish about 3/4 inch of lip then paint the wheels black.
1. What is the best way to strip the area to be polished?
2. What grit sand paper to start with?
3. What are the rest of the grits used?
4. What is the best method to spin the wheel without a lathe?
After I get them smooth I plan on using mothers aluminum polish then sealing the polished portion with automotive clear.
Any and All coments needed and wanted please

 

hmm.. i used shining monkey to wax my rims. they stayed great for several months.

click on my avatar

 

The first question I have to ask is what kind of wheels are they? Are they cast, forged, billet? Do they have a separate hoop, or is the hoop integrated into a casting?

If you have a cast wheel, you may spend a whole lot of time and effort to end up with something you are completely unsatisfied with. When you get to the sanding I wouldn't do anything less than about 800. From there just keep progressively moving up. Finish off with a wet/dry paper. Use it wet.

When you are finished there you will want to use some buffing compound before you begin polishing. When it comes to buffing and polishing, use a dremel. Used properly, you will save yourself a TON of time.

When you are ready to polish try and find Wenol. Probably some of the best polish I have ever used. The same stuff is used by a local company that builds wheels, chromes and polishes. If you don't have luck locally, just try a google search. It isn't available direct from the manufacturer, but plenty of people carry it online.

And finally, when done polishing, get yourself some mineral spirits. You will be amazed how cleaning the wheel with mineral spirits will really bring out the shine of a good polishing job.

 

mask and tape the part you dont want touched. get paint stripper. start at the edge, work it out carefully towards the mask part.

 

Great suggestions Guys!
Here is what I have now. The wheels are cast. American told me they were powder coated. The paint I had over the white podercoat got scratched while removing the tires so now I have a new gameplan.
Stripped one wheel down to bare cast aluminum. It took off the paint I put on and the powdercoat together. Is striper supposed to remove powdercoat? Got one lip polished and it looks like chrome. Started with 320 grit then 400 to 600 to 1000 then mothers.
After the stripping and polishing is done I'm going to powdercoat everything but the lip with gloss black then clear PC over the whole wheel. (no more polishing then).
I'll post up picks when the powdercoating is done. Thanks again and wish me luck.