Polishing 20" Alum. Sport Wheels????
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Polishing 20" Alum. Sport Wheels????
Hi, new to the forum and just bought a '02 Dodge Ram Sport (4X4) with 20" "chrome" 5 spoke wheels. I worked 2 hrs on them today trying to get them looking good-you know-chrome shiny...and had so-so results. Tried Turdle wax Chrome polish, and several other polishes. Found that some spray on tire foam brought out the best shine, but still not great. I'm guessing these wheels are Aluminum and coated with a plastic maybe? My old '92 Ford F-150 had coated chrome wheels and they looked terrible once the coating got chipped.
Any help on what you guys use to make 'em look great???
Any help on what you guys use to make 'em look great???
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RE: Polishing 20" Alum. Sport Wheels????
There is also the option of polishing them to a mirror finish. I have polished plenums, valve covres, fuel rails etc in other vehicles to a mirror shine. Aluminum will shine up just like chrome if enough time and attention is paid. Check out www.eastwood.com, they have a huge buffing and polishing section. Something Tipoli white rouge and plastic or jewelers compound will get you there. And then I prefer to use Mothers aluminum and chrom polish to keep them nice and shiny. If you dont find what you are looking for or are confused PM me and Ill send you more links. Eastwood also has a video on how to polish etc... though i've never seen it I have heard it is quite good.
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RE: Polishing 20" Alum. Sport Wheels????
Hey thanks.....what I'm afraid of is do these alum wheels have aplastic coating? From your reply, I'd guess no (unlike my old F-150, which had coated alum chrome wheels).
If anyone had worked on these wheels to look great, LMK. I do jewelery work, so I have a lot of Tripoli, Rough and other polishing compounds. Soooo Mothers would be a good buffing unit to try??? I will read up on the other polishes mentioned here (www.eastwood.com,master formula) -thanks.
If anyone had worked on these wheels to look great, LMK. I do jewelery work, so I have a lot of Tripoli, Rough and other polishing compounds. Soooo Mothers would be a good buffing unit to try??? I will read up on the other polishes mentioned here (www.eastwood.com,master formula) -thanks.
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RE: Polishing 20" Alum. Sport Wheels????
Just by tapping on the wheel you can tell by the sound if you have the plastic faced chrome wheels. If you have them and they are dull, there is very little you can do to restore a shine. Any harse polishes will probably scratch the finish and make them look worse. Waxing or using a window cleaner or plastic cleaner is probably the only way to safely polish them to whatever shine they have. Someone may have cleaned them incorrectly in the past and damaged the finish so they will never shine properly.