Aluminum rims ruined by acid...

Kristopher1129

Kristopher1129

New member
Joined
Jan 3, 2011
Messages
2,861
Reaction score
0
Hey guys, I have a regular customer of mine who allowed his friend to detail one of his Classic vehicles for free. Why...I don't know, and he really regrets it now. And why the guy wanted to do it for free...I don't know either. He was probably trying to steal work from me!

Either way. He screwed up BIG time, ha. He did the classic spray of acid on uncoated aluminum CHIP FOOSE rims! I know...it's nonsense. Not only that...he did this to a 69 Camaro!

It sounds to stupid to believe...but it's true. Well, apparently...the company or business the guy works for covered the rims, and he got a brand new pair of rims.

So, long story short...he has the old rims that got sprayed. I've never actually had to repair a screw up with acid on aluminum (cause I know better!)...but I've polished plenty of aluminum. I'm assuming this would be a fairly simple task with the right products.

What I have right now...is Wolfgang aluminum polish, a 3" wool ball, a hand drill, various metal polishes, Flitz aluminum Pre-Clean, Flitz scuff pads.

What I'm looking to do is make my job as easy as possible. I'd like some really good polishing tool recommendations for this job. Tools, products, methods...all advice is welcome. Hit me!

P.S. I don't have pictures cause I don't have the rims yet. I have an appointment to detail his GTO this wednesday. I believe I'll be getting them then.
 
you may need several grits of sandpaper to start

good luck
 
I did this for a living this summer. I worked for a trucking company that had wheels that had never been polished in the 10+ years that they had owned them. We sprayed them with acid to eat the pitting down then polished them. We used just a regular aluminum polish with rotary buffers and wool pads. This did a great job bringing the shine back, but it took a little to tool to perfect them. We used the Meguiar's polishing cone and it worked wonders. I would suggest the cone to anyone with aluminum wheels.
 
dchristo said:
you may need several grits of sandpaper to start

good luck
Click to expand...

That I've also got. I have 500, 800, 1000, 2000, and 3000. Mainly for headlights...but sandpaper is sandpaper.

I thought the Flitz scuff pads would come in very handy instead of sandpaper though. I usually do really well with them.
 
All you need is a metal polish. Acids only cloud/stain the finish so any type of metal polish would take that out.
 
Lasthope05 said:
All you need is a metal polish. Acids only cloud/stain the finish so any type of metal polish would take that out.
Click to expand...

That's what I was hoping. I can't imagine it would be that tough to remove the stains. I bought a Meguiars cone to really get the tough spots.

We shall see. I will take pics when I get the rims. :xyxthumbs:
 
Kristopher1129 said:
That's what I was hoping. I can't imagine it would be that tough to remove the stains. I bought a Meguiars cone to really get the tough spots.

We shall see. I will take pics when I get the rims. :xyxthumbs:
Click to expand...

Great choice on the DynaCone.... they're excellent tools! I use mine way more often than the Mother's Powerballs or PowerCone.
 
Lasthope05 said:
All you need is a metal polish. Acids only cloud/stain the finish so any type of metal polish would take that out.
Click to expand...
:iagree:I've removed this cloudiness on bare aluminum with a terry cloth, Mother's mag & aluminum polish, and some elbow grease. No machines are required...but they do help a whole hell of a lot.
 
Shiny Lil Detlr said:
Great choice on the DynaCone.... they're excellent tools! I use mine way more often than the Mother's Powerballs or PowerCone.
Click to expand...

I've never actually used the Mothers ball...but there's something about the Megs cone that just looked to be more useful to me. I've been wanting to get one for a while now.


Ted S. said:
:iagree:I've removed this cloudiness on bare aluminum with a terry cloth, Mother's mag & aluminum polish, and some elbow grease. No machines are required...but they do help a whole hell of a lot.
Click to expand...

I've actually done that once before. It took one hell of a lot of elbow grease, ha. I'm going with machines this time...I ain't screwing around!
 
hopefully the etching is on the surface and didnt dwell ..... you will likely polish using some time and patience to find good rewards.
 
Lasthope05 said:
All you need is a metal polish. Acids only cloud/stain the finish so any type of metal polish would take that out.
Click to expand...

Exactly, acid on UNCOATED alluminum wheels is ok. It actually flashes the metal with a haze and cleans them very well. You should only just need to polish them out. Try M105 it makes a great alluminum polish. You should be able to get them looking nice and shiny like chrome rather quickly. Its gets messy though, lots of black residual everywhere. :xyxthumbs:
 
Kristopher1129 said:
I've never actually used the Mothers ball...but there's something about the Megs cone that just looked to be more useful to me. I've been wanting to get one for a while now.




I've actually done that once before. It took one hell of a lot of elbow grease, ha. I'm going with machines this time...I ain't screwing around!
Click to expand...


along with nevrdull,mothers mag and alum.,flitz and a few other brands of metal polishes I have a full metal/wheel polishing kit that comes with an air tool and about seven different buff wheels and several compounds. works like a charm and less elbow grease,and not draining the battery on my drill.View attachment 9057
 
Barry Theal said:
Exactly, acid on UNCOATED alluminum wheels is ok. It actually flashes the metal with a haze and cleans them very well. You should only just need to polish them out. Try M105 it makes a great alluminum polish. You should be able to get them looking nice and shiny like chrome rather quickly. Its gets messy though, lots of black residual everywhere. :xyxthumbs:
Click to expand...

Thanks, Barry. I've actually used M105 many times on chrome. You're right...it works very well. It does get messy...but it's always worth it. Especially when those rims are sitting on a 69 Camaro! :dblthumb2:
 
Alright...He finally brought the car to me. I was SHOCKED at how bad they really were. I've never actually seen acid damage on aluminum like this, cause as I said before...that was a rule I always knew (not spraying acid on aluminum).

Anyways, as soon as he brought the car in my shop...I knew right off the bat that the rims were going to have to be removed. As you can see, there are some large openings that allowed the acid to go right inside. I guess deep in the back of my head...I was hoping that didn't happen, ha.

I've gotten all four done already. Here's what I was dealing with. These pics are of only ONE rim. Bear in mind that all four were sprayed! So each one looked like this, if not worse...

Doesn't look too bad in this one...
IMAG01461.jpg


But...they are bad, ha.
IMAG0148.jpg


IMAG01471.jpg


Annnnd the reason they had to be removed...
IMAG01501.jpg


Now...time to get to work. I tried getting this done as gently as I could. I first tried some polish a couple times. All that did was basically shine up the damage, ha. Then, I tried Wolfgangs aluminum compound and a wool ball on my drill. It did a little...but I couldn't remove the stains at all. There was no doubt about it...I had to be very aggressive here.

So, my process went as follows on all four rims...

- Cleaned with Flitz Aluminum Pre-Clean (LOVE this stuff)
- Scrubbed with Flitz scuff pads while wet with Pre-Clean
- Wolfgang Aluminum Compound with a wool ball and drill
- Polished with a sample of Meguiars Hot Rims All Metal Polish 2, and maybe 3 times with a Mothers cone.

This process took me about an 1-1.5 hours for each rim...I know, fun huh? lol

Here are the results...

IMAG0153.jpg


IMAG0154.jpg


IMAG0152.jpg


Vehicle still needs to be detailed...so no tire shine for now! lol
IMAG01561.jpg


I will be giving them another polish when the detailing is done...but I was more than happy with these results so far! And oh yeah, if you don't have a lot of patience...I don't recommend taking on a job like this, ha.

P.S. As for the sample of Megs Hot Rims...I love this stuff. It smells fantastic, and works like a charm. :dblthumb2:
 
They look great now.
I have been using a product called Busch's on aluminum as of lately. they have a compound and a polish. Both work amazing and are super easy to use. Be nice to have AG stock this line!
 
Great Job!
This is a classic example on why we all should start out less aggressive on restoring a finish.
If you had whipped out the sand paper which may have appeared necessary to a lot of folks, you'd have spent 3 times the amount of time you took to restore them, and maybe even averted another problem.
This is a great forum !:xyxthumbs:
 
We sell a kit to fix damage like this, and AutoGeek stocks the components - our PowerBall Mini MD (part # 05142) and PowerMetal Scratch Removing Polish (05150).

That removes the damage, and then you finish up with Billet or Mag & Aluminum Polish on a regular PowerBall or PowerCone.

Work time per rim should be 30 minutes max for complete restoration.
 
:checkit:
I've used this combo for neglected wheels and it worked great!:props: Never thought about using it on acid damaged wheels .....

forrest@mothers said:
We sell a kit to fix damage like this, and AutoGeek stocks the components - our PowerBall Mini MD (part # 05142) and PowerMetal Scratch Removing Polish (05150).

That removes the damage, and then you finish up with Billet or Mag & Aluminum Polish on a regular PowerBall or PowerCone.

Work time per rim should be 30 minutes max for complete restoration.
Click to expand...
 
forrest@mothers said:
We sell a kit to fix damage like this, and AutoGeek stocks the components - our PowerBall Mini MD (part # 05142) and PowerMetal Scratch Removing Polish (05150).

That removes the damage, and then you finish up with Billet or Mag & Aluminum Polish on a regular PowerBall or PowerCone.

Work time per rim should be 30 minutes max for complete restoration.
Click to expand...

I always like to finish polish with Mothers Billet polish. I think it always gives the aluminum a nice clear finish. I haven't found anything that I feel works better

I love polished aluminum a lot more than chrome. Chrome looks nice and is almost maintenance free but I think aluminum has more depth in the reflection when fully polished.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top