Polished Wheels - Need Advice

I have polished wheel, not chrome on my 40th Anniversary coupe. Does anyone have advice on the best way to keep them looking good. It seems as though they are more susceptible to the elements. I have the mothers polish and "power ball" attachment. It seems to work OK, but not great. Thanks

IDK, are they clearcoted? If they are and you use metal polish.... they wont be for long

They were no clear coated when I got them.

elbow grease and wheel polish is the only way..... those wheels are high maintenance w/o clearcoat.

The secret with a polished wheel is to never let them get too bad. Brake dust can be a bit corrosive, so wash it off often. Use a good polish, like Mother's with a 100% cotton cloth. A quick polish every other time you wash the car will keep them new looking. Polished aluminum has a much richer and softer look than chrome and looks better polished without a clear coat which clouds and yellows.

My advice is clear them! Mine are polished and cleared, no maintenance at all. If you don't want to shoot them with clear, you can always use a very aggressive sealant and apply frequently, like rejex or optiseal, but it won't be as effective. There is a product available to pro detailers called opti coat, which apparently is a viable alternative to clear for this application, but I am just an amateur and have no experience with it. If you contact optimum products they will be able to refer you to a pro in your area who could apply it, probably cheaper than someone professionally clearcoating, although while opti coat is advertised as permanent I have my doubts (even clearcoat eventually fails)

I thought the Anniversary "chrome" wheels were actually a special powder coat finish, so they may require special care/cleaning that differs from polished aluminum.

The wheels are not powder coated. Just polished aluminum.

Clear Powder Coat

So what is the best recommendation to get them back to looking new? What would you guys do? They just have some spots that look a little cloudy. How do I know if they still have clear coat? I do not see anything peeling or flaking.

Here's another option: http://www.sharkhide.com/mpinfo.html

the owners manual of my old 928 said to rub petroleum jelly on the factory polished aluminum wheels every so often. it gave them a satiny look, but it supposedly helped to protect them.

Do not apply a clear coat ... you will regret it when it starts to peel and fade. Try a professional product made to clean and protect aluminum wheels. I had a set of polished Fuchs and this was the perfect solution ... http://www.alcoa.com/alcoawheels/nor..._care_info.asp

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If you use a polish and the oxidation is being removed, a very black reidue will develop and your rag will be black in no time. This happens with non coted polished aluminum. If no black develops, they are either powercoated or cleared.

The very first time I applied polish, I noticed the black residue. Looks like this is just oxidation as I see no signs of clearcoat peeling. I originally tried the mothers polish and powerball attachment for the drill. It seemed to work OK. Not sure if it was not a high enough speed and probably too big of an attachment to get into the nooks of the wheels. Thoughts on using a dremel with a polish attachment?

I use Wenol on my Fikse FM10s (it has 2 separate abrasive levels along with a wax) and it's what Fikse recommended. It is also my experience that bare aluminum will always generate black residue when polished. Lot's of places to get it if you are interested.

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I just did mine. Black Magic - Titanium Wheel Polish, Safe on all wheels and metals. And it smells good. Pic is not the best quality. I took with my cell

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How does this differ from a spray on clear coat? Is it ok to use the abrasive metal polish?

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When applied to wheels regular spray on clear coat will eventually fail....some wheel repair places refuse to even do it. Powder coating is much more resilient to chipping, fading etc.

If you polished them or rubbed them w/ compound and you got black residue, then you were on bare aluminium. They must be bare polished aluminium. So, if you want them like new, you better take them off and have them repolished then cleared. I know there are many wheel shops on the internet, wheel enhancement, etc. I know of one here in tampa, glenns wheel polishing, and he can polish them and powder coat clear.

once you polish them they will look great where you polished BUT you just started a process you will have to keep up forever unless you clear coat them. The more you polish, the shinier they get.....and the more you notice when they start to dull.

- Get some mothers aluminum polish - put about a tic tac sized amount on the end of a rag - put two fingers through the rag and apply to the wheel going back n' forth about 4 inches until it turns the rag black (repeat over whole wheel) - take a different rag and wipe off the remaining black residue from the wheel (note) you have to go back n forth quite a bit in the same spot for it to work properly. Think of it as if you're trying to rub off glue residue from a sticker. voila...shiny rimz I used to have polished Weld Draglites on an old foxbody mustang that I had to polish EVERY week, or after it rained. Whichever came first.

Ok. So I have spent 2-3 hours on one wheel. It looks so much better. Seems that it is just oxidation. I use the mothers power metal polish with the mothers powerball mini. It removed most of the oxidation. Then I used a dremel with the polishing cloth attachment. Same attachment they recommend for polishing silverware and such. Will post some before and after pics. Once these are all done, I am going to just take a few min per week and polish by hand. That should help keeping up with them.