Polishing question...

[taz]

Ok, I looked through all of the posts here in the Body Shop Forum and haven't seen what I'm looking for. I remember on KP someone had posted a tutorial for polishing. Could someone point me in the right direction of this type of tutorial?

thanks in advance.

[KatDan]

here's how i did my wheels...
1- use Aircraft stripper to remove all paint and primer
2-depending on what you're working on, start sanding with 600 grit paper. on my wheels i used that until al the machining marks were gone. now move on to 1000 grit until it's all smooth, from here i went to 1500 grit wet sanding until it was smooth as glass, and a fair amount of hours later, you'll be done sanding.
3-i used rubbing compound with a power buffer to get a nice shine and smooth it out a little more.
4-lastly i used Mother's mag & aluminum polish by hand to get the ultimate shine, any further upkeep can be done with the Mother's after that to keep them looking nice.

this isn't a close up, but you can see the results of about 20 hours of sanding and polishing. have fun!

[Range]

Trinc (Tim) has a how to I believe

[soccersteve]

ohhh man....you didn't do it all! you have to do the whole thing. but it does look good, don't get me wrong. when i did mine, i started with 100 grit. i wanted to get all the bumps/holes out of the whole thing. then i moved up in grit, 240, 320, 400, 800, 1000. making sure that all the scratches are out at the current grit before moving on. i decided after i finished that i'm going to remove the letters off the wheels, so i got out a die grinder (air powered) and started grinding away. i'm going friday for powder coat.....what can i say, i changed my mind. but taz, it is A LOT of work. so just make sure that you are committed, then you'll be fine. but i used mothers polishing compound. i also tried this stuff called "semi-chrome" (i think) and that worked pretty well as well. maybe even better. but its also a lot more expensive. good luck

[SweetLou]

Prepare to have your finger prints removed from sanding, and your fingers to BLEED

[HS2020]

Step 1 Remove rims and tires from bike
Step 2 Take rims and tire to local shop have tires removed
Step 3 Take rims to the chromer
Step 4 Get rims back from chromer and press in new bearings
Step 5 put new tires on
Step 6 put rims and tires back on bike tighten everything up
Step 7 Go riding.

[SweetLou]

High, you forgot the

Get Mothers Metal Polish

Step.

Its ok though Bro, I got your back

[KatDan]

he forgot the "empty your wallet" step also

[Meikol2]

There is also a detailed How To on Squidbusters, by Oxi-Rider.

http://www.squidbusters.com/sb/article.php

[taz]

cool guys, thanks for the advice and info. i'm not sure if i'm going to polish my whole rim or just the lip like KatDan2 did. I like the way the spokes are painted black on that. Think it might look good on my yellow cat with painting the spokes black. what do you guys think?

[Meikol2]

I like Black and Yellow.

[HS2020]

High, you forgot the

Get Mothers Metal Polish

Step.

Its ok though Bro, I got your back

Lou No I didn't Mine are chrome so therefore no need to have that polish.

[taz]

what type of paint would i use to paint the spokes on the rims?

[SweetLou]

My bad High, I thought you had to keep the chrome all polished up.

It must just be a mexican thing

[taz]

ok, now how much clear coat should i plan on using?