Thread: Aluminum polish

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Dave that stuff is very expensive!

IC2 wrote:

Now, with that said, has anyone tried Zoop Seal.

I have never used it, but did make some inquiries about it to others once a few years back. Feed back was mostly negative, but maybe they just weren't doing it right. Someone told me once that applying Rain X to aluminum after polishing did a good job of protecting the shine. But have not tried that yet either.

Stovens and Bob

I guess those are two of the reasons I really haven't heard too much about Zoops. It was just a thought for discussion (and the fact that I'm lazy and polishing shiny stuff gets old real quickly

Yesterday the HAMB had a thread posted on polishing aluminum wheels....

Never mind . . . pics won't come through....

Nice thing with coming into my E mailbox first - I was able to open the pictures. Those are real interesting wheels on the '32. Not sure that I really care for the blue steelies - but I'm not a lover of anything blue, so that opinion doesn't count ), but they are bright!!!!

Originally Posted by C9x

Never mind . . . pics won't come through....

That's wierd C9x. I also got the link and message via email, but not here. Those are the same slot mags I have. If the English metal restore doesn't work, I'll take them to a wheel shop and see what they can do. I also hate polishing stuff(or cleaning for that matter)

Well, lemme give it another shot.

About ten years back I had the local chrome shop polish the front slot mags on my 32.
They brought up a very nice, almost chrome plated shine that's weathered well.
If I remember right, I've only cleaned them three times since then.
Just washing them with Turtle Wax car wash soap keeps them looking good.

Here's a couple of fairly recent pics.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...r/Adapter7.jpg

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...wCapssmall.jpg

The tires are not as big as they look in the first photo.
Wheels are 5 1/2" x 14" . . . which can be hard to find.
In over ten years of looking I've only found one more.

At least the recently found 4 1/2" x 15" will be easier to hold up for the buffer.

http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...arrowMags1.jpg

They should clean up pretty good - pic taken during the 32 hubcap adapter setup.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...arrowMags2.jpg

Just for the heck of it, here's the two I cleaned up a while back so I could try some whitewalls on the car.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...eforeafter.jpg

The whites looked ok, but these wheels (7" x 15") have too deep a backspace for my car

Long as I'm on a roll -
The whites.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...hitewalls1.jpg

And a set of powdered steelies off the 31.
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f2...ireStance3.jpg

Geez, out in the sunlight the blue puts most reds to shame.

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Usually pics open with no probs.

I did try to turn on the [IMG] code at the bottom of the page, but it doesn't want to change.

Sorry about that, but I'll leave it up if anyones curious....

Originally Posted by C9x

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Usually pics open with no probs.

I did try to turn on the [IMG] code at the bottom of the page, but it doesn't want to change.

Sorry about that, but I'll leave it up if anyones curious....

My history with 'bucket here - sometimes it just wont work!!!

I looked earlier though

about 4 years ago we did alot of the prep on the GM show car and truck rims to get up to paint or to buff and we did the brush look rims to. there is no short cuts we block sanded the rims just like body work to get them dead flat to paint or buff they had to be up to 400 grit the big rims on the GM car/platform you may have seen it looks like a surfboard with wheels and spider looking rims were a pain in the butt to sand out

Well the english metal polish came in the mail today. So I tried it out on one wheel rubbing it on with at first a soft cloth, then a green 3m dish pad. Here are the results, up close it's cleaner, but the blemishes are still there. At ten feet away they look alot better.
Dirty
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...vens/dirty.jpg
clean
http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/c...vens/clean.jpg

[QUOTE=stovens]Well the english metal polish came in the mail today. So I tried it out on one wheel rubbing it on with at first a soft cloth, then a green 3m dish pad. Here are the results, up close it's cleaner, but the blemishes are still there. At ten feet away they look alot better.

Actually it looks pretty good based on what you started with, but what I think you are seeing is actual sub surface corrosion rather then some simple surface oxidation. You might have to get a bit more aggressive before the polish - and maybe with something like a red then white and maybe even a "1500 compound" to get rid of that corrosion. Possibly even get into wet and dry sandpaper, maybe 600/800/1000. My wheels are not that bad, but my guess is that I might need to do more then polish as well

I have had recent good luck with Flitz polish and their fabric polisher put in a drill works well. It is much more durable than that hokey Power Ball from Mothers. The Flitz seems to work well on everything I've tried it on from stainless to chrome to hard plastic.

Pat

I wrote the above post back in sept 2008, and every time I go out to the garage that one wheel just stands out and shines. I think with a flitz or some more elbow grease they all will be fine. The fact that the wheel still looks shinny 5 months later is almost testimony enough!