18 replies to this topic

[ianpettifer]

hey guys
today i spent all day polishing up the rims on my superlights with a kit i bought on ebay

they look great!!!!!!!!!!

How can i protect them from the elements and not waste all my hard work?

polish? wax? laquer? etc?

any ideas would be great

also if i painted the centres, is there any paint recommeded? halfords ok? and just a quick go over with wet and dry before paint?

thanks

[nicksuth]

Can you post the link?

Also, how bad where they and how good are they now? Got any before and after pics?

I need to clean my 7x13 superlights and one is particularly scabby where the laquer has come off and a bit of alloy corrossion (that bloody white stuff) taken place

[mike.]

Well a good quality wax is going to be the best bet against the elements.

Are the rims lacquered or is it just bare polished alloy? If its just alloy, don't lacquer them! It won't key very well and once moisture gets under it, it'll just peel and look poo.

You need to keep them waxed and clean them at least once a week and much more often than that in winter. If you do any long motorway drives or drives in the wet, give them a quick rince/wipe down as soon as you can to remove any salt thats left on there.

If you do this, you'll prevent the corrosion very well, and you'll be able to spot any corrosion early, and polish it away with autosol.


Nicksuth; if the lacquer on your rims has started peeling, im afraid its too late. Theres very little you can do to make it look better, and the only way to get rid of it, is to refurb the wheels, by stripping all the old lacquer off and sanding/polishing the corrosion away.

Heres how much second hand alloys were when i picked them up, pretty badly corroded with peeling lacquer:



So i stripped the lacquer and paint off them, sanded the corrosion off with 400 wet&dry, then polished them up with a proper drill mounted polishing kit. The end result was the following. The centres are yet to be painted:

[matty4113]

this stuff is supposed to be amazing, not tried it myself though yet! link

Edited by matty4113, 27 July 2009 - 11:08 PM.

[mike.]

I've been using autoglyms HD wax on my dads car and it works great on the bodywork, haven't tryed it on the wheels, but i get a purpose designed well sealer would work best.

[ianpettifer]

hey sorry cant find link for the kit atm

it consisted of a mop and a big mar of compound lol

Its just the outer rim the same as in ur pics so i guess it was laquered before but meh

Definitly worth doing anyway they look sweet, they look like mirrors now

thaks for the advice, i found some alloy protector in the garage so will use that then give them a coat of wax

thanks

[jaydee]

I'm no expert on this, but i think its better to use wax than laquer directly on alluminium, as it weel flake and peel off easily.

[chunkytfg]

this stuff is supposed to be amazing, not tried it myself though yet! link

+1 for this stuff.

apply thinly lik ewax and buff off once dry and reapeat till you have 2 or 3 layers on it. Also dont forget to do the backs as there is nothing worse than a set of clean alloys with the backs still minging!

Oh and this stuff absolutely stinks!!!

[ianpettifer]

what paint shall i use then for the centres?

is halfords rattle cans ok? then a coat of laquer after?
thanks

[rick.spi]

id laquer the outer rim...

[Nick Warwick]

no point it will just peal again in no time, wax does the job after a good polish

[ianpettifer]

3 wheels done 1 to go wooop

shame i have a bit of a setback.

the electric drill i was using has packed up so had to do the last bit on the 3rd wheel by hand which took agessss

[mike.]

id laquer the outer rim...

The lacquer won't key, especially on a very polished surface.

[rosco454]

Unless you use a specialist lacquer,it wont even stick to a properly polished surface.Even the lacquers designed for this application are rubbish and dull the finish badly,yellow quickly with age and chip/peel off in the end.

Done loads of polishing in the past and the only way to keep a show quality finish is to clean and protect it in an almost religious fashion.

Cheers Ross.

[nicksuth]

What's the best (you know I mean "easiest"!!) way to get the laquer off?