Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

[jbraswell]

Well, I've been doing professional detail for some years now.. Just getting my feet wet with metal polishing. I am into BMW's and older (old to me, I'm 22) wheels. I'd really like to get to the point where I can start restoring multi-piece wheels efficiently, right now the polishing process is pretty slow for me.

I am using a porter cable rotary (1-3k RPM), 6" buffs and some "ryobi" compound. Emery, tripoli and white rouge.

These particular wheels are some older HRE's.. Produced in the early 90's and never mounted on a tire. They had some scratches and oxidation from storage. I removed the bolts and started with tripoli and spiral sewn at 3k rpm. Removed all the defect so I went to the white rouge with a loose cotton wheel (I think this is where I'm wrong) and am getting some marring. I tried using corn starch and I'm still getting the same thing. Do I need to use a softer buffing wheel with the white rouge?

They look ok from here:


But not here:


Thanks for the help and I look forward to learning

[FigureLLC]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

speed might be a little low... i think recommended speed for aluminum is around 7000 surface feet per minute. so a 6in wheel has a circumference of about 1.6 feet, and spinning at 3000rpm, you'd get 4800fpm. too slow and the work tears the compound off the wheel, so you might be running a little dry. i also read that when "polishing properly" you spend about 25% of the actual time applying compound to the wheel. it's worth noting that i read this on a company's website who sells polishing compound.

[mpierich]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

In that 2nd photo I see what look like scratches. Did you do any sanding at all?

The speed and heat might need to go up. You could also try white on a felt wheel as a last step.

[jbraswell]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

I accidently scratched it with a dirty rag while wiping excess compound..

So basically my RPM needs to stay at 3000 regardless of the compound/buff combo?

[baz]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

by looking at all those diagonal scrathes i would think that it is not just a question of speed but rather some contamination , did you use that cotton wheel with any other compounds ,wasthe buffing wheel clean ,do you rake it often ,i you compound bar contaminated and is the wheel clean ,
make sure everything is clean and go over those scratches but in a different direction then take a look to see if the scratches are gone ad what kind of a finish do you get do you still get scratches in the new direction
if you still have scratches from previous buffing then you may need to increase speed ,pressure and maybe more agressive compound,if you only have scratch lines from buffing in the new direction then i would change the buff wheel and try a different compound (less agressive)

[mpierich]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

I accidently scratched it with a dirty rag while wiping excess compound..

I hate when that happens!

So basically my RPM needs to stay at 3000 regardless of the compound/buff combo?

The common compounds you'll be using all need the same speed/heat range - like FigureLLC says it's all in the surface speed, not necessarily the rpms. You can get decent results with lower speeds but if you're having trouble it's one thing to play around with.

BTW, if you're doing a lot of wheels, beware of magnesium as opposed to aluminum. It's my understanding that it's tough to get mag to polish up nice. Maybe baz knows more about that.

[baz]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

I hate when that happens!



The common compounds you'll be using all need the same speed/heat range - like FigureLLC says it's all in the surface speed, not necessarily the rpms. You can get decent results with lower speeds but if you're having trouble it's one thing to play around with.

BTW, if you're doing a lot of wheels, beware of magnesium as opposed to aluminum. It's my understanding that it's tough to get mag to polish up nice. Maybe baz knows more about that.

i havn t done that many magnesium parts but a couple of months ago a guy showed up with some magnesium motorcycle parts ,no wheels but different kind of covers that i had to buff and then powdercoat with caswell s black chrome powder , buffing was not really the problem but after buffing i halways clean in hot water and soap before powdercoating , so after i cleaned i left the parts there til the next morning , when i came in the parts were already tarnished so i had to repolish them

[mpierich]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

i havn t done that many magnesium parts but a couple of months ago a guy showed up with some magnesium motorcycle parts ,no wheels but different kind of covers that i had to buff and then powdercoat with caswell s black chrome powder , buffing was not really the problem but after buffing i halways clean in hot water and soap before powdercoating , so after i cleaned i left the parts there til the next morning , when i came in the parts were already tarnished so i had to repolish them

Hmmm, good to know. Thanks baz. Sounds like clearcoat is a must.

Watch it if you sand them much...I imagine the dust would be highly flammable! I used to hear stories about Chevy Vega engines burning out of control...

[baz]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

yeah , the problem with magnesium is that we hear so many storys that we don t know what is truth and what is a myth , i do know that burning magnesium is serious s%$t , but till now i had no major problems

[smooth72]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

I have used a 4" grinder with the guard off before, you can pick one up cheap from Harbor Freight. Use a rake on your buffing wheel any time the wheel looks shiny at all and reapply the compound. Once you get all the scratches out you can use mother's billet polish, not thier aluminum polish. The billet polish has no or very little abrasive and will a very bright finish.

[samtgallagher]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

BTW, if you're doing a lot of wheels, beware of magnesium as opposed to aluminum. It's my understanding that it's tough to get mag to polish up nice. Maybe baz knows more about that.

not sure about larger objects but here is a magnesium engine cover i did earlier this year:

(circle part in the middle is mag)



only thing i can say is that tripoli cuts as fast on that stuff as emery does on soft aluminum

[mpierich]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

Looks pretty good. Did the finish last?

I'd guess it's like aluminum...a lot of different alloys and they all take a little different method...

[samtgallagher]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

Looks pretty good. Did the finish last?

I'd guess it's like aluminum...a lot of different alloys and they all take a little different method...

that mag finish didn't last at all, i won't do any personal mag parts again

[mpierich]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

that mag finish didn't last at all, i won't do any personal mag parts again

Well, if you can get them looking good enough then use Zoopseal or powder to cover it, maybe it would be worth it.

[samtgallagher]

Re: Amateur Wheel polishing: Pics of progress, need help from here

Well, if you can get them looking good enough then use Zoopseal or powder to cover it, maybe it would be worth it.

i got zoop, but was trying to sell the bike immediately and didn't want to waste any of it on that thing