How do you polish original Alfa rims like the one's pictured?

[JOHN G]

Looking for the best way to polish original Alfa rims to a finish as good as the pic.

John

[Robert. Dale]

 Hi John,
             Look up the phone book or the web for Metal Polishers and ring around to you find one that polishes Mag Wheels.

You will need to remove the tyres of course and you will need to paint the wheels with clear after they are polished.

Regards Rob.

[JOHN G]

Thanks Rob for the tips.
But I was looking for the process/steps of best polishing Alfa rims so I could carry out the work myself.
Regards
John

[Storm_X]

i have similar mags on my giulietta i justed used mothers ally polish from supersheap auto. came up good.

alot of elbow greece

[Joey]

If you wanted to get some painted alloy wheels polished there is always the option of getting them soda blasted and then polished. I plan on getting stuck into my ones with my company's alloy polish when I get my GTV. I will hopefully get a few coats of clear coat over them as well.

[pep105]

Hi John,
You could try a light grade polishing pad that would strip paint and bring up a light polish.
Careful on the grade as to not score the surface or worse distort edges or cast lines.
Alternatively you could soda/sand blast as Joey suggested to remove paint prior to polish.
Final step is to hit them with Autosol as a final polish.

Have used Autosol at work (Toyota) and we have recomended it to cutomers and the dealer network in the maintence of polished alloy product such Hilux Sportsbars & Alloy Bullbars etc.  really works good stuff
Like the others said then topcoat clear, or if you dont then periodic polishing using Autosol or similar (Mothers) 

As some of the suppliers I deal with conduct alloy polishing, will try to get more info.

My old GTV had factory mags polished back in the 90s, it looked great but I always wanted to paint them back to standard as at the time a lot of 'Marios' were polishing the rims on their VK/VL Commodores (mayyte), so I didnt want to look like an even bigger wog than I already was.................. however never got around to it 

[Joey]

If you look up Eco wash mobile (what I work doing) they will also do polishing at your house, I have done a fair few bars and wheels and they seem to come up sweet with our products. Saves time but costs money so its the usual argument :p

[Craig C]

How would I reverse the process?  I have two wheels painted and two polished and want to even them up.  Do I need to do something special to the aluminium to make sure the paint sticks?

[pep105]

John,
How did you go polishing your wheels ? Did you get a chance to try it yet ?

[Mike]

How would I reverse the process?  I have two wheels painted and two polished and want to even them up.  Do I need to do something special to the aluminium to make sure the paint sticks?

Yes, you'll need to ruff the surface a little first.  I would go over it with some fine wet and dry.  Don't foget to clean the surface thouroughly as well afterward.  You may think about dropping them off at a 2pack painting shop to borrom their heater, a good hard paint surface is needed on rims to avoid chipping.

For polishing I aslo rate autosol, when useing mix with a little water and don't let you polisher wheel dry out.  I use a dremel for my polishing, andit will depend on the size of the flats on you wheel, in the case in question, you may want to try a buffing wheel for the large surfaces and drememl for hard to get at spots.  Remeber though, the polishing compound will show up evey lazy spot, so if you didn't spend enough time with the wet and dry.....

Sod blasting is a very good idea as it takes a lot of work out of the sanding, the finish is very nice, way better than sand blasting.