Aluminum polish

I've used Meguire's for my cars paint forever and wont change. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have a decent aluminum (and stainless/chrome)polish. I've also tried Mothers, Wenol, Eagle 1 and a couple of others. These all seem to leave a haze. I use clean applicators and clean rags, usually cotton T shirts or old bath towels. Since it's time to start doing some cleaning, want to try something that might work without the haze, or worse, scratching - and my car is FAR from billet proof. Any suggestions?

I've used mothers as well as Eagle 1 etching mag cleaner, and Noxon metal cleaner. Aluminum is a tough nut, and when it oxidizes it's damb near impossible to clean. My old mags need cleaning and polishing since the truck sat outside for 8 years or so before I got it. If you find something let me know as well!

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Originally Posted by stovens

I've used mothers as well as Eagle 1 etching mag cleaner, and Noxon metal cleaner. Aluminum is a tough nut, and when it oxidizes it's damb near impossible to clean. My old mags need cleaning and polishing since the truck sat outside for 8 years or so before I got it. If you find something let me know as well!

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Heck, my new Billet Specialties GTX01 wheels started to oxidize in the garage in 3 months. But, with that said, the cement is totally salt impregnated and I'm assuming that's the cause. That's one of the problems living here - salted roads from Nov to April, and it never completely goes away. Even my valve covers look bad but they are only temporaries as I have some new on the market for Ford Billet Specialties pieces sitting in a box just waiting

I'm probably going to look on a bike site as well - they seem to have some good products for their aluminum and chrome

English Custom Polish. Very good stuff. Know some who think it is the best.
They sell a variety of polishes.

http://www.englishcustompolishing.co...utomotive.html

Just ordered their metal restorer, it says will work on tough aluminum oxidation on aluminum mag wheels, and yellow amonia stains, so I let you know how it goes!

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Originally Posted by stovens

Just ordered their metal restorer, it says will work on tough aluminum oxidation on aluminum mag wheels, and yellow amonia stains, so I let you know how it goes!

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I'd appreciate that - my wheels while scuzzy, aren't too awful bad yet, but getting that way quickly.

Tried Wenol?

Works for me.

I resurrected a pair of old slot mags a while back.

240 grit wet/dry.
3M abrasive cloth - maroon - medium grit.
Buffer with red then white rouge.
Wenol.

They came out ok, but a higher polish would require more time on the 3/4 HP buffer, but after a while ya get tired of holding the wheel up.

Take a look at the polished to a satin finish wheels at Roadsters.com.
He did them completely by hand.
Lotta work, but they do look good.

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Originally Posted by C9x

Tried Wenol?

Works for me.

I resurrected a pair of old slot mags a while back.

240 grit wet/dry.
3M abrasive cloth - maroon - medium grit.
Buffer with red then white rouge.
Wenol.

They came out ok, but a higher polish would require more time on the 3/4 HP buffer, but after a while ya get tired of holding the wheel up.

Take a look at the polished to a satin finish wheels at Roadsters.com.
He did them completely by hand.
Lotta work, but they do look good.

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My wheels aren't ready for the satin.....yet. Possibly Stovens with his really weathered wheels would benefit.

I polished a couple of sets of swap meet valve covers that way - black crud and a pound of fuzzies all over my shop as well as me. I still have one set of OEM "Powered By Ford" script covers to do that wont work on my roller rocker engine.

i use mothers and a hand drill with felt bobs and muslin buff wheels and just keep working the pice then hand buff off the mothers works ok if real bad red 3m super duty compound my HALS have been in side and whey were going to milky takes about 3 hours a rim and thats just the front of them :mad: then power balls are junk heres is one done still have one more left hope to get it done before the snow flys i still have to buff the backs still. i will do them with my buffer

Dave, Steve, any of you guys, have any of you heard of Gibbs penetrant? According to the information I read, it's pretty amazing stuff, see what you think. Gibbs Brand penetrant

Mike

I used Metal Master on the "Z" parts. It's a 2 part Cut/Clean & Final Shine.
The final shine is a sealant to extend the shine life.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...edaluminum.jpg

Like you I have always used Meguiar's on paint and always will.
I had been using Mother's Mag & aluminium polish and tried the polish ball.
I recently tried Meguiar's Hot Rims mag & aluminium polish and it is amazing. I apply it with an old white tube sock and buff to a shine with a micro fiber cloth. Not sure how it is long term but it is easy to use and the results are very close to chrome.
I have not treid it on chrome or stainless but I highly reccomend it for aluminium.

This stuff is the schiznit:)

http://whitediamondpolish.com/whitediamondpolish.php

Lots of good suggestions and it looks like I'll be able to get the aluminum clean and shiny one way or another.

Now, with that said, has anyone tried Zoop Seal. One guy I asked at a show wasn't very happy with it but, who knows what his prep was and it's expensive (my 'tight' Scottish side shows up occasionally:3dSMILE: )

There is a product that has been out for many years and works great but is labor intensive. Semi-Chrome. Is a paste that has to be rubbed in by hand. I use an old sock on my hand like a mitten.

Dave that stuff is very expensive!

IC2 wrote:

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

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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:whacked: ), but they are bright!!!!

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Originally Posted by C9x

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

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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):eek:

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....

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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....

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

I looked earlier though:LOL:

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!

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Originally Posted by stovens

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!

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....and mine are still slimy:whacked::whacked:....and I started the thread on 9/9/08:eek::eek: Soon.....but I said that last spring as well!! As far as shipping them out to be polished ....I don't think so.

IC2 did you ever give the metal restore a try? I litterally only spent 20-30 minutes with pretty good results. Might be worth a try.

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Originally Posted by IC2

I've used Meguire's for my cars paint forever and wont change. Unfortunately, they don't seem to have a decent aluminum (and stainless/chrome)polish. I've also tried Mothers, Wenol, Eagle 1 and a couple of others. These all seem to leave a haze. I use clean applicators and clean rags, usually cotton T shirts or old bath towels. Since it's time to start doing some cleaning, want to try something that might work without the haze, or worse, scratching - and my car is FAR from billet proof. Any suggestions?

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There is a product out that I am Sponsored by and believe me when i tell you this, there is no other product out there that is better and easier to use NO RUBBING NO SCRUBBING, AND ALL YOU NEED IS ABOUT A PENCIL ERASER SIZE DAB TO DO HALF A WHEEL. Not because they sponsor me but i have tried everything you all have mentioned and this BY FAR is the best. You send them and email and tell them Ron with Nas T Too sent you and they will hook you right up. Look at my car, I HATE POLISHING and this stuff makes it SO EASY..:):):):):D http://www.hotflashcarcare.com/

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Originally Posted by stovens

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!

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I should have clarified this too I meant the 2" buffer they sell that hooks up to a drill.
Here is a link, I like pictures vs. words!:)
http://www.flitz-polish.com/s.nl;jse...&category=-223

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Originally Posted by stovens

IC2 did you ever give the metal restore a try? I litterally only spent 20-30 minutes with pretty good results. Might be worth a try.

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Steve - I have spent a bunch of time looking at those wheels this winter - through the storm door to my garage shop:mad:. We have had about 3 days since 1 Dec when my 2 propane heaters would even make a dent in the (much) less then 32*F cold. Soon, though:whacked:

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Originally Posted by IC2

Steve - I have spent a bunch of time looking at those wheels this winter - through the storm door to my garage shop:mad:. We have had about 3 days since 1 Dec when my 2 propane heaters would even make a dent in the (much) less then 32*F cold. Soon, though:whacked:

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I hear you! It's been cold, but mostly wet here! So I'm working on setting up the garage, researching painting, and gathering stuff for the truck. We need the rain water, but god it's getting old. Snow must be worse.