Let’s talk about polishing rims?

[TrustJesus]

Hey gang,
I don’t want to be viewed as being lazy and not trying to figure things out. I’m trying to learn with all your help.

I suppose I can bunch of polishing products, but I wouldn’t even know how to use them.#

I know I can do a search online, YouTube (yeah right no more).

As I said when I joined, I’m here to learn the right way.

Will anyone educate me on rim polishing?
You can share topics such like.
•How to identify rims that are not worth polishing

•The Do’s and Do not
•Which rims are harder to polish
•How to polish chrome
•Which tools to help polishing
•Your favorite polishing brands
•Will a product like Griots Garage Complete Polish work, I need a dedicated rim polishing?
•Safe products for clear coat rims
•Safe product for all around rims?


Just something that help help me, or others out.

I’ll admit I’m intimidated by this, so well I’m asking.
Thanks



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[Eldorado2k]

•How to identify rims that are not worth polishing

•The Do’s and Do not
•Which rims are harder to polish
•How to polish chrome
•Which tools to help polishing
•Your favorite polishing brands
•Will a product like Griots Garage Complete Polish work, I need a dedicated rim polishing?
•Safe products for clear coat rims
•Safe product for all around rims?

IMO about 90% of all wheels you’ll run into these days really aren’t worth polishing.. Why? Because modern day OEM wheels usually come in the most boring color we’ve ever seen in the history of automobiles, alloy silver/gray.

All that’s really needed to make these wheels look the best they can is to simply get them clean.. I’d go as far as saying it’s the final look of dressed tire that provides the real pop.

You can polish these wheels till your arm falls off, and the average person still wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Some people may disagree, but I feel the same about black gloss wheels.. IMO the most important thing is to get them clean. It’s the tire dressing that adds most of the pop.

I didn’t polish any of those wheels.^ It’s borderline a waste of time.

Even chrome wheels... IMO chrome can be cleaned, but it can’t necessarily be polished in the same way we usually define polishing.

You can restore a chrome wheel from being caked & baked with brake dust to looking like this with the right wheel cleaner.. But good luck making it look worlds better by “polishing” it.

Chrome is either in good condition, or it’s not. And when it’s not no real amount of polishing is going to bring it back to looking like new. It simply needs to be re chromed.

Unless you’re anal about the fine scratches you may see on black gloss wheels [which if they’re on there they’ll likely be back in no time] The only kind of wheels that actually deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with the word polish are bare aluminum wheels. And the odds of you actually running into some bare aluminum wheels are slim.

But when you do run into some, you’ll finally get the true satisfaction of having made an actual difference in return for the effort it can sometimes take to polish out some wheels.

That’s why I say any other wheels aren’t really worth the time and effort when you’ll never approach making that kind of difference.^

 

[TrustJesus]

Ok, I definitely hear you man. If a client ever asks me to, I’ll just explain it in a nice way.

Good pics good work

 

[vaca22]

So it's pretty pointless to use something like Flitz to attempt to remove fine scratches from chrome, I gather?

 

[vobro]

It’s really no different than working on cc paint if the wheels are clear coated just on a smaller scale. Need to pay attention to edges and watch the backing plate hitting the rim. I have the Rupes Nano and it’s THE tool for the job but I agree 100% with Eldo. It really is a lot of work pulling the rims and polishing rims and after I did it twice on my Durango RT I released it wasn’t worth it. I settled on doing as Eldo suggested and keep them clean, which with black wheels is a delicate process in itself.

Now if you were getting paid to do it I’d make sure to get bank,90% of the times people don’t spend the effort needed to CLEAN the wheels and I find the wheels to be the most neglected to where a “simple” cleaning won’t cut it and that needs to be gone over in your initial conversation with the customer. The wheels as you know should be very clean before the polishing, so it’s possible to spend 15-30 minutes per wheel just cleaning before the wheels are pulled and polished.

I know most times people with not much experience keep their prices low to build a clientele or spend a few minutes doing extras to go that extra mile but this is one area that you can get stuck losing a lot of time and effort by low balling. My suggestion to you is try it on your vehicle and see what’s involved

 

[Cleankat]

I polish mine! I treat my wheels exactly the same as I treat my paint.

Wheels take a lot more abuse than paint does.

I do agree that polishing certain wheels is a lost cause, but gloss black absolutely needs it, and all wheels need protection. I typically use an all in one or cleaner wax.

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[vobro]

So it's pretty pointless to use something like Flitz to attempt to remove fine scratches from chrome, I gather?

I don’t think it is if it’s important to you. Real chrome or the plastic chrome cladding?

 

[vaca22]

I don’t think it is if it’s important to you. Real chrome or the plastic chrome cladding?

Real chrome. They look just fine in the sun, so really it's just me being unneccessarily particular about the details.

 

[PaulMys]

So it's pretty pointless to use something like Flitz to attempt to remove fine scratches from chrome, I gather?

Get out of the cave with Flitz and grab yourself some Collinite #850 Metal Wax.

 

[TrustJesus]

This is a thread for all of us to learn. Good info guys, keep it coming.

So, out of curiosity can we use like a Griots Garage complete polish for black clear coated wheels?

Or do we need a “dedicated” wheel polish ?

 

[TrustJesus]

It’s really no different than working on cc paint if the wheels are clear coated just on a smaller scale. Need to pay attention to edges and watch the backing plate hitting the rim. I have the Rupes Nano and it’s THE tool for the job but I agree 100% with Eldo. It really is a lot of work pulling the rims and polishing rims and after I did it twice on my Durango RT I released it wasn’t worth it. I settled on doing as Eldo suggested and keep them clean, which with black wheels is a delicate process in itself.

Now if you were getting paid to do it I’d make sure to get bank,90% of the times people don’t spend the effort needed to CLEAN the wheels and I find the wheels to be the most neglected to where a “simple” cleaning won’t cut it and that needs to be gone over in your initial conversation with the customer. The wheels as you know should be very clean before the polishing, so it’s possible to spend 15-30 minutes per wheel just cleaning before the wheels are pulled and polished.

I know most times people with not much experience keep their prices low to build a clientele or spend a few minutes doing extras to go that extra mile but this is one area that you can get stuck losing a lot of time and effort by low balling. My suggestion to you is try it on your vehicle and see what’s involved

If I can be honest, all the cars I’ve detailed I’ve asked for low compensation.

I’m barely started and I feel I’m not qualified to charge more.

Furthermore, I’m in the process of getting my own 35 gallon water tank, and small generator to at least charge more.

Here are some before and after pics of my “details”. One day I will get better, but for now I feel the need to under charge.

Is anyone still doing interior details, with the virus going around?

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