Polishing

[rayray086]

What am I doing wrong?

Today, I started polishing back some lips. I stripped the clearcoat first (flapper wheel + nylon brush), then proceeded onto wet-sanding with 240/400/600/800/1000/1500/2000. I spent the most time at 240 grit sanding back some of the scratches made by the flapper wheel and nylon brush, and I made sure no deep scratches got past that stage. Onto the polishing stage, I started with black compound on a sisal mop, used detergent + warm water as instructions to get rid of burn marks and other residue, then white compound on a soft mop, followed by hand polishing using Mothers Mag/Alu Polish. Here were the results:







Disregard the area where the bolt inserts are, I deliberately didn't spend as much time on them as the bits we can actually see. What I'm annoyed about is why there's still some fine lines (camera couldn't capture them but they're there, running perpendicular to the outline of the lip) and the presence of those water mark-like marks... I went over the lip with liquid polish by hand but they're still there... What did I do wrong?

[Golf Houso]

Try some kerosene... that works great on rims, those without clearcoat of course...

[intensem1]

Or go over it again with the mothers alloy polish, should remove the black marks, left from the buff.

On the next lips, I wouldn’t go as low as 240grit stick to 400. If you have deeper gutter marks, just focus on those areas with the 240 or a fine file, to avoid marking the whole lip.

Also try paint stripper on the clear, rather than a brush it won’t scratch them.

Otherwise it’s looking great. What colour are you going to do the centres?

[OEM G60]

Yeah i agree with the above, but i would give them a good go over with some autosol before the Mothers. With the Mothers use Terry Towelling, put a thin coat onto a small area (100mm) and rub it like mad, try and rub it right in till its almost buffing out.
You'll get the hang of it, its hard work, but you'll find by the time you've done your 3rd rim you will have it sussed, and you'll want to do the first one again !!

[Soundofav6]

Looking SO much better !
For the water marks I would try wet sanding with 2000, dry it, clay bar, metal polish, Paint renovator than super resin polish (auto glym), wax and buff with a woolie material towel. That should get rid of the MOFO.

That was my last step for polish my carbon project
I still have some auto glym products, bring your wheel over to mine and give it a go.

[rayray086]

Thanks for the feedback fellas. I only used 240 due to the flapper wheel (rated 60) and nylon brush (rated 80). I suppose I'm giving myself too much work with those.

With the paint stripper, what do you guys use to get rid of the residue and flaking paint? I hate dealing with paint stripper cos of that step, it's just so ****ing messy.

I always hear good things about Autosol - I'll give that a go next too

Louis, I don't think the AG products will work well, since they work specifically on paint!

One more question - with the burn marks, do they cause any messy finishes or is it just a superficial layer from just spending too much time on the same spot?

[OEM G60]

That sounds like what it is, you're lucky you didn't have to sand them by hand like me !! Took me hours !

Maybe get some wet and dry from 800 op to 2000, with soapy water on those spots and do it by hand.

Rubbing the polish in hard is what you need to do after you have a nice clean finish on the alloy.

Wax will only dull the mirror shine you'll get after the Mothers.

[intensem1]

Wouldn’t recommend using the Flapper wheel again, 60- 80 is heaps rough.

Try stripper, use a pressure gun to clean the flaky paint off, or just use a rag and wipe it all off then chuck it out.