MasterofDisaster
Senior Member
About a year ago, I noticed that my rims had developed a milky or beige mess in the clear coat. I couldn't get it off with a Dremel wire brush. The Dremel and rubbing compound might have made it look worse. It looks sort of like
but to the naked eye it was milky white or pale yellow/beige.
I tried some #3 steel wool and elbow grease on it, and that removed enough of the clear coat that I was able to remove the rest with the Dremel w/ wire brush. I also tried the Dremel 320-Grit Finishing Abrasive Buffs. The abrasive wore off pretty fast, even at lowest speed and light pressure.
The good news is that the buffs make a good carrier for Soft Scrub and rubbing compound. Soft Scrub seemed to be more abrasive and removed clear coat faster.
I used the Dremel and a regular fabric buff with polishing compound to polish the aluminum. I also tried jewelers rouge, and both were about the same polish. The jewelers rouge keeps your work area a little cleaner because polishing compound flies all over the place. Sprayed with generic clear coat, the rims look like
You can see the stripes where I masked off the original clear coat. I'm going to let the clear coat dry for a week or so before polishing it. It's not perfect, but it's better than the scaly crap that developed in the last couple years.
On Sun, 30 Aug 20, I hand buffed the rims with a Scotchbrite non stick pad and rubbing compound. Then I polished them by hand with a Scotchbrite non stick pad and polishing compound.
View media item 8468View media item 8467I think they look nice - at least as good as they have looked in years.
but to the naked eye it was milky white or pale yellow/beige.
I tried some #3 steel wool and elbow grease on it, and that removed enough of the clear coat that I was able to remove the rest with the Dremel w/ wire brush. I also tried the Dremel 320-Grit Finishing Abrasive Buffs. The abrasive wore off pretty fast, even at lowest speed and light pressure.
The good news is that the buffs make a good carrier for Soft Scrub and rubbing compound. Soft Scrub seemed to be more abrasive and removed clear coat faster.
I used the Dremel and a regular fabric buff with polishing compound to polish the aluminum. I also tried jewelers rouge, and both were about the same polish. The jewelers rouge keeps your work area a little cleaner because polishing compound flies all over the place. Sprayed with generic clear coat, the rims look like
You can see the stripes where I masked off the original clear coat. I'm going to let the clear coat dry for a week or so before polishing it. It's not perfect, but it's better than the scaly crap that developed in the last couple years.
On Sun, 30 Aug 20, I hand buffed the rims with a Scotchbrite non stick pad and rubbing compound. Then I polished them by hand with a Scotchbrite non stick pad and polishing compound.
View media item 8468View media item 8467I think they look nice - at least as good as they have looked in years.
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