73 alum wheel restoration. What have people done?

I want to have my wheels restores any recommendations?

I want to have my wheels restores any recommendations?

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I restored mine myself.

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-how-to-keep-aluminum-wheels-from-oxidizing

Depends on how bad they are. I can give you the recipe I used if you want to go that route.

they look great what did you do?

they look great what did you do?

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First and foremost it helps to have a little OCD

It depends on how bad yours are. Mine where pitted pretty good so I needed to take a lot of metal off. I uses a die grinder and and three types of 2" disks. Course, med, and fine. Started with course. If you do this start with fine to get a feel for how much you take off. These wheels are really forgiving so it's really hard to take off too much that you can't fix. Just keep the grinder moving. Once you're satisfied then you need to go through all the various phases of getting it to a mirror level. In my case I had to:

1. Use angle grinder and 2 inch disc starting with course and going to fine.

2. Used steel wools number #1, then, 00, then 0000. I did this wet.

4. Used 1500, then 2000 wet sand paper. Might try 2000, then 2500.

5. Bought Eastwood polishing kit which included a 3 inch angle grinder pad and white Polishing Compound followed by Blue Polishing Compound.

6. You can skip this step. I bought something called shine seal and put them on the wheels. The verdict is still out as to how long they will stay nice before having to polish them out again.

7. To get the black ring instead of paint I just used a quarter inch black pinstripe and went around the Wheel. Use an eraser head to keep the tape in the channel.

Tips.

I would start and do a test case on a small area so that you can get a feel for the process. The problem is is that you have to make sure that on each step you thoroughly sand the area. Otherwise you'll leave scratches and won't really see them until you are several steps in. I actually took a magnifying glass through each step to just kind of look and make sure that it was sanded evenly. Like I said OCD baby!

I spent about 60 hours total on all four wheels so you have to be committed. My wheels were pretty bad when I started though. The result is an absolute mirror finish that compares to Chrome. You can also save yourself all the time and for probably about $800 to $1,000 send them out to be chromed but the won't remove the pits. Another option is there's a guy on eBay that recondition old wheels and he runs them through a CNC machine and takes off metal but they won't come back like Chrome but pretty nice. I think he also powder coats them clear too . You have to remember though that that's not how they came from the factory so it's your call.

PM me and I'll shoot you my number and we can talk through the process if you want

My pal Jim has slotted mags on his '75 Jeep CJ-5 (Renegade/Levi's Edition), and when I first met him, his mags looked like the typical dull metal-lookin' wheels from back in the day. Also looked like he hadn't ever cleaned 'em as well. So, I shamed him into making them nice again (especially after he had the Jeep re-painted), since I had a set of M/T Alcoa's on my '97 Ram that I had polished to near chrome-like condition.

It took longer, but he basically used a large tub of Mother's Mag & Wheel polish with a bag of shop rags. Of course, that was before the Power Ball polishing tips you can use with a drill or roto-tool or something.

No sanding involved, very shiny, but looks like polished aluminum, rather than 'chrome.'

I just use the power ball and polish on mine. You need to do it a least once a year to keep up the shine.

((( Drool... )))

I always did like your car, Mike. That looks sweet (yours too, Jim)! ::thumb::