I REALLY need advice/help for aluminum

[VelvetRose]

I seriously need to pick your brains :think2

I have aluminum rims on my truck and T4 aluminum as gap guards in the rear wheel wells that I fabricated. I`ve tried Semi Chrome, Meguiars, Wenol and a couple others. I`ve used my dremmel tool, 0000 steel wool, soft brushes etc. I never seem to get that really awesome shine, plus everything I`ve ever used doesn`t last. I swear, I could polish them once a week. I`ve tried Wenol sealant and wax and those didn`t seem to work to my satisfaction.

What in the world can I use that will last? :cry:

Christine

[gmblack3]

I ended up using some Blue magic and the mothers powerball on these wheels:



http://autopia.org/forum/showthread.php?t=71056&page=1&pp=12&highlight=topkick



I have not seen the truck since then so hard to tell how they are holding up. I did not put anything else on them.

[joshcaro]

I dont know how much this will help anyone, but I finally tackeled my Polished Aluminum wheels with no clear coat today after months of putting them off. I didnt think I could get them to shine nearly as much as I got them to today. When I first bought the wheels a few months ago, they were extremely hazy looking with little dots everywhere. Definitely something was wrong, I just didnt know what. I tried many products by hand and even used a PC but nothing made them budge. So here was my plan of attack today that gave me 100% success.



There is a 4 inch polishing wheel that they sell at Lowes for just under 5 bucks I believe (they also made an 8 inch one I believe) but for my wheels I needed the smaller one.



I bought a connecter that was the same brand of the pad to connect to my electric drill.



I simply rubbed the polish (Mothers Mag and Aluminum) slightly on the wheels and went at it with the drill. It took about 15 minutes per wheel to get them where I wanted them.



I wish I had pics to show the difference, but there is a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR improvement. They honestly look like chrome now.



I had posts many threads here and there and tried tons of tons of approaches and could not get it to budge ONE BIT!

[Tasty]

Here`s another vote for Meguiar`s Mag and Aluminum polish. I used that in tandem with Mother`s Powerball on a diamond plate alum. truck box and it was the ONLY combo that would work on the horrid levels of oxidation and crud on the box. I would polish and then use a nice wax on the surface afterward to provide protection. It`s gonna be difficult at best to keep wheel gaps looking clean and polished all the time. Exhaust tips are bad enough...

[joshcaro]

You meant..Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish :)



I honestly think the Powerball may be a waste of money, because with the pad I used it was about 1/4 of the price as the Powerball and I cant possibly imagine it be anymore effective then what I used.



Just giving you guys some cheap and effective outs to obtain that shine...i battled for so long with this aluminum and this combo is honestly the only thing that has satisfied me at all!

[victory]

We use mothers mag polish for the aluminum diamondplate on the firetrucks. Really cleans it up nicely. I`ve been thinking of sealing it in with some collinite to keep it that way.

[Tasty]

Yeah, I meant Mother`s. I`m just saying what worked for me. I tried EVERYTHING, believe me. The powerball is a great tool. I think it was money well spent. I`ve used it with AIO on oxidized plastic too and WOW.

[VelvetRose]

Thanks guys. That gave me a couple things to try. :waxing: