Aluminum Polishing & Steel Powdercoating

[ck80]

So, my goal this year has been to stay more busy and active, pain be [email protected]%?ed. I listened to docs the last 6 years and '22 was my worst yet. Already told one I was taking myself off some of the meds he's got me on, and, that he could either write tapering scripts or I'd take myself off on my own. Scripts it was.

So, been keeping lots of irons in the fire and bouncing between projects. One of those is that I want to refinish some of my literally multiple hundreds of wheels I've got stored here, and, these are my first two desired wheel projects maybe someone has tips on.

#1 - aluminum polishing. I'd like to begin with some of these style camaro rims I have:

What I'd like to do is leave 95% of them the hammered grey finish, but the thin flat circle around the edge and the two flat lines on each spoke edge running towards the center I'd like to get a nice shiny polished finish on.

To my knowlege they were never done as such from the factory.

Obviously the ball style attachments they make wouldn't work for such a fine area while leaving the rest untouched, is it something a Dremel tool with a fine tip would work well with? slightly concerned with pilishing just the surface away without wearing down into the surface level. I've never tried doing such a thing other than as maintenance of an existing polished surface, but, think they could look pretty sharp done up that way.

#2 - I've accumulated an excess of chevy rally wheels from full sized trucks. I'm thinking of having them powdercoated in batches if the price was economical enough on a per unit basis the plain factory light silver color and using a few sets to start with on my trucks, and maybe selling a few sets at the swap meets. Has anyone had experience with a known good shop in a range from say Charleston S.C., to Jacksonville FL, to Atlanta GA and points in between? I debated starting cleanup, but, since any vendor likely wants to clean them themselves to offer a warranty on the coating it seems like it may be wasted effort to do prematurely.

Looking to keep my project slate full since when ordering parts and pieces there's always delays and backorder on things. This won't be a year for sitting around if I can help it.

 

[565bbchevy]

What I'd like to do is leave 95% of them the hammered grey finish, but the thin flat circle around the edge and the two flat lines on each spoke edge running towards the center I'd like to get a nice shiny polished finish on.

The first step would be to see what the finish is currently on the wheel, since that will have to stripped to bare aluminum before any pre polishing prep is done.

 

[Ribbedroof]

The Camaro wheels would originally have been machined on those areas, and clear coated over the entire face.

 

[ck80]

The first step would be to see what the finish is currently on the wheel, since that will have to stripped to bare aluminum before any pre polishing prep is done.

The Camaro wheels would originally have been machined on those areas, and clear coated over the entire face.

That's something I was trying to figure out. The 16" versions were and I've seen plenty that are. But these 15s, I can't remember any and even the 'new' reproductions and reman wheels all seem to be the single dull color except for the ones that have some paint on them

 

[Peter P.]

So, my goal this year has been to stay more busy and active, pain be [email protected]%?ed. I listened to docs the last 6 years and '22 was my worst yet. Already told one I was taking myself off some of the meds he's got me on, and, that he could either write tapering scripts or I'd take myself off on my own. Scripts it was.

So, been keeping lots of irons in the fire and bouncing between projects. One of those is that I want to refinish some of my literally multiple hundreds of wheels I've got stored here, and, these are my first two desired wheel projects maybe someone has tips on.

#1 - aluminum polishing. I'd like to begin with some of these style camaro rims I have:

View attachment 215095
What I'd like to do is leave 95% of them the hammered grey finish, but the thin flat circle around the edge and the two flat lines on each spoke edge running towards the center I'd like to get a nice shiny polished finish on.

To my knowlege they were never done as such from the factory.

Obviously the ball style attachments they make wouldn't work for such a fine area while leaving the rest untouched, is it something a Dremel tool with a fine tip would work well with? slightly concerned with pilishing just the surface away without wearing down into the surface level. I've never tried doing such a thing other than as maintenance of an existing polished surface, but, think they could look pretty sharp done up that way.

#2 - I've accumulated an excess of chevy rally wheels from full sized trucks. I'm thinking of having them powdercoated in batches if the price was economical enough on a per unit basis the plain factory light silver color and using a few sets to start with on my trucks, and maybe selling a few sets at the swap meets. Has anyone had experience with a known good shop in a range from say Charleston S.C., to Jacksonville FL, to Atlanta GA and points in between? I debated starting cleanup, but, since any vendor likely wants to clean them themselves to offer a warranty on the coating it seems like it may be wasted effort to do prematurely.

Looking to keep my project slate full since when ordering parts and pieces there's always delays and backorder on things. This won't be a year for sitting around if I can help it.

In response to your questions about refinishing wheels:

#1

I'm doing something similar with the GN wheels that I have on my Regal. As a test I sanded by hand one of the "spokes" and the outer edge of the rim with 400 grit sandpaper (followed by 600 grit) to remove the clear coat and the machining marks in the aluminum (pictures attached). I followed this by polishing with Autosol. Very tedious work but I'm afraid that using any mechanical means will leave unwanted grooves in the aluminum and take away from the defining edges (already noticeable where the spoke meets the outer edge of the rim). At this point I'm going to try a citrus paint stripper to at least get rid of the clear coat/painted area between the spokes and sand/polish from there.

#2

I had a set of original steel wheels from my 2000 S10 that I had powder coated to uses as winter rims. They looked good a first but very quickly started to rust in the valley between the outer rim and the hub. The powder coater I used redid them but the same thing happened. My point is to make sure that the powdercoater you use can get that area clear of rust (if possible) and ensure they can get the paint to flow into that area so it's protected.


Hope this is some help to you.

 

[CopperNick]

Like has been noted, there is a clear coat that has to be stripped off the surfaces before they can be worked on. I did a pair of S-10 alloy rims that i wanted to use on my Monte and got them sanded down to fairly smooth by using successively finer grits of 3M Wet n Dry Papers and water for a lubricant to keep the grit from clogging up. Got as high as 600 and may go finer yet before I try for a buff.

The Harley alloy rim I am playing with got sanded down to around the same and then I threw it at the buffing wheel on my grinder with the wheel loaded up with Red Rouge. Doesn't look too bad but needs a little more buffing time to make me happy. Some of its scratches will remain as, while they can be taken out, it is not a show wheel and I am past being that invested in "pretty". I can blend them while keeping material removal to an absolute minimum; don't see anyone bothering to go to hands and knees to check it out.

For a wheel rim, you might have to use a heavy drill motor and a suitable buffing attachment for that and try it that way. Unless you have arms and back muscles like "Ah-nie" or the Rock, wrestling a rim while trying to keep it in contact with a spinning attachment and not have it pop back at you can be interesting.



Nick

 

[CopperNick]

About polishing aluminum

What you see in the picture above is a circs 75 year old front brake backing plate for a long term project I have been playing with. This part is aluminum and, as the picture illustrates, one side has been polished and the other is waiting.

This part was actually test item for a first atttempt at polishing just to see how much the various cakes of polish could accomplish

In the next pair of shots, the aluminum did buff out nicely but there are still marks visible because I had stopped the sanding process around 600 Wet/Dry which is too coarse for prepping soft metal. Again, this was a test run to see what it would need.

This shot shows the other half of the plate's face. I took this side down last night using 800 Wet/Dry and, while there are sanding marks still visible, they are significantly finer.

A detail that compares how smooth most of the surface has become compared with a few of the deeper scratches and nicks that still remain. A few of those can still be erased but a few will remain simply because the thickness of the metal itself is not that great; maybe 3/16ths at most and thinner in some places. This would not be as much of an issue if the candidate is an alloy or aluminum rim but the amount of work to get to this point is a lot more for one of them.

The next step is more sanding. This was using 800, so 1000 or 1200, then up to 1500 and maybe even 2000. The painters in the group will be nodding at this point as the fineness of the sanding is about to the same degree as is needed for buffing out paint

The rims currently mounted on my 85 have had some prep work done and if it ever warms up to operational levels again out in the shop, I can sneak back in and pop a couple of shots of them.

Those same painters will also recognize my sanding helper of choice. This pump bottle gets filled to about the start of the neck and then a shot of dish soap gets added in. The mixture of water and soap acts as a lubricant for the sanding process and prolongs the working life of the sanding paper. Being Wet/Dry applicable, the paper itself is very tolerant of many fluids and I have gone ahead and even used it with cutting or lapping oil to polish thrust faces or erase scratches prior to component assembly. Sure the labeling is overkill to a degree but how many time have you put something in a bottle and then forgot what it was?? Label it. That way you don't shoot varsol on your metal when you wanted to spray it with water..................................



Nick

 

[Drkuhar]

I went through this for my truck rims. I glass beaded the clear coat and corrosion off. Sanded all the flats starting with 180, 220, 320, 600, 800,1500 and 2000 then polished by hand with mothers polishing compound. I taped them up for paint and when it was all done i hand rubbed the flats again with buffing compound
to get any paint bleed through off.
I have a tv in the garage and sat on a barstool at the workbench doing this while watching tv as it is tedious and time consuming
You wont see them till you start sanding but the flats have little lines from the machine work that need to be gone to be able yo polish.

 

[79 USA 1]

Polishing aluminum parallels auto body work in that your finished product will only look as good as your prep work.
I've polished valve covers as well as wheels. My first set of wheels was a set of Foresight Ventures "Track" wheels that I purchased from a local wrecking yard for $5.00 per wheel, coated in red house paint. They were straight, and the yard owner didn't have the energy or time to restore them for his 61 Bel Air. These were polished about 35 years ago and still look fairly good even after being stored for the past 20 years.


Biggest challenge had to be a set of Monte Carlo Checkerboard wheels that I picked up for my El Camino and now are storage wheels, They were sometime before my purchase stripped of the clear with a wire wheel. Ended up DA sanding with 180, 320, then 400 -600 grit before polishing with a buffing wheel on a bench grinder. They look good from a distance but need refining to hide the porosity of factory aluminum.


To date the best results came on the hose reel for my house and the Torque Thrust wheels on my 79 Monte Carlo. These were DA sanded with 180, 220, 320 grit then hand wet sanded with a block with 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500 and finally 2000 at 90 degree angles to the previous grit. I picked up a buffing kit from Harbor Freight with the tripoli and white rouge compounds and the buffing wheels with arbors that would work on a hand drill. I used my variable speed Harbor freight angle grinder/buffer with a 8 inch wheel and white rouge to finish them. To keep them looking just polished I use White Diamond polish. Mothers has a great product but the White Diamond gives a far better clear finish. Just as a side note, I always purchased Eastwood polishing products until about 5 years ago. Their wheels and compounds are made in China like the Harbor Freight products but at 3x the price. Below is the hose reel and the wheels on the Monte Carlo.

 

[CopperNick]

Yes to all of the above and great pictures into the bargain. Those S-10 mags that i referred to will be getting loved by the finer grits of paper at some point in time this year. My 8 inch buffing wheel was sourced up here but could easily have been mfgd over there. It does seem to shed fibres readily but since I am leaning on it at the same time, i guess it is something that I should expect. The plan is to acquire a couple more of them so that I can load the surfaces with specific variants of polishing cake and not have one wheel do multiple duty. The tripoli is a red rouge or cake and I personally like the finish it creates. There are actually about five different colors of cake that have specific applications for certain metals. Think there is even one for non-metals like certain plastics.



Nick