Polishing Wheels Try to use the intended product for the type of metal or finish of the wheel your polishing. Aluminum polish is for aluminum, Chrome polish is for chrome, and mag polish is just aluminum polish and it doesn't work on mags because they do not polish with the type of finish they have. |  |
 | To thouroughly get a wheel polished you need to remove it from the vehicle, I only suggest this in extreme situations. A polishing ball attached to a drill works very well when polishing around lug nuts and in between spokes. Notice in the picture above and to the left I clean and polish inside the wheel also, if it's possible. |
Chrome is not a metal, chrome is nickel with a finish on it, once that finish is flawed or scarred you can only polish the nickel beneath it, and nickel does not look like chrome when it's polished! Most surface scratches and those tiny bumps that chrome gets will come off by using 0000 steel wool. Don't apply any pressure when using the 0000 steel wool, and don't use any grade other than 0000. | .jpg.opt172x164o0,0s172x164.jpg) |
.jpg) | The best tip I've found regarding chrome is to use only soap and water and always blow dry. Any professional detailer will tell you wheel acid produces the best results, and this is true, nut acid is very difficult to mix properly and even though you wont hurt the chrome on a wheel, you can do bad things when acid gets on the wrong surface. The better brands of chrome polish give the same results as the most inexpensive - if you need to polish your chrome, Turtle Wax makes a sufficient chrome polish and it's very affordable, it also works great on windows! I don't wax my chrome either, I've read tips on with or with out wax and I tend to lean toward the no wax and allowing chrome to breath. Any thing that sits on chrome ends up producing the tiny bumps, so try to keep your chrome as clean as possible. |
For aluminum wheels, or anything aluminum, the only polish I've found to be worth my time is Mothers Aluminum Polish.In the picture to the right is my engine on my Celica. Look at the vary shiny aluminum pipes, for each of the four I used a different brand aluminum/chrome/metal/polish. The first, starting from the left, is Flitz, kinda spendy for a little tube and I used atleast a half tube to get this shine. The second is Monochrome which comes very highly regarded, and it does miracles on brass and gold, the third is Never Dull, and yes I know it's not meant for aluminum, but a lot of people suggest it, and the last is Mothers, which comes in at about $10 less than the first two. Pair up the polishing ball and drill with Mothers and wheels become a breeze, even diamond plate gets easier. If your aluminum is really scratched or stained, pair up the 0000 steel wool with Mothers and see what you get. |  |
.jpg.opt188x180o0,0s188x180.jpg) | For mag wheels and painted or finished wheels, I use soap and water. I only use polish on mag alloys if they are oxidized, otherwise mag alloys do not polish. Painted and finished wheels can be polished and waxed just like the vehicles finish. |
Dressing Tires I only use a light dressing and I spray it onto a foam pad away from the vehicle and wipe onto side walls and the again with a clean cloth, this keeps dressing from splattering onto the vehicle when it's moving. This is also when I dress any molding, trim, etc. if it needs it. I try to stay away from dressing these parts because they tend to dry and fade quickly, sometime looking worse than they did. If these parts are real bad I will just repaint them with spray paint designed for plastic or rubber. | .jpg) |
