Remove swirls from un-coated aluminum?

A4 1.8tqm

A4 1.8tqm

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Hey Mike,

A buddy of mine ordered a new set of wheels, they are un-coated aluminum and arrived all swirled out. First thing we tried was the Mothers mag and aluminum polish which quickly removes a lot of tarnish and gives a nice shine, but the swirls are just unacceptable (IMO). He contacted the manufacturer and they said, Oh well those will just always be there, or you can't do anything about that... something to that effect.

So my obvious question is what do I use to remove swirls on aluminum? I couldn't possibly imagine that there is no way to get these wheels swirl free.

Here are some pics, thanks for any advice.

IMG_4900.jpg


Some of the marks look pretty deep :mad:

IMG_4903.jpg


IMG_4901.jpg
 
I use Wenol on my intake and it can get some like that out. Have to go over it a couple times .
 
I have uncoated aluminum wheels from Iforged and bought new from them. I can only offer they did NOT come from the factory like this and that these companies can indeed polish them to a high luster. I also have friends running CCW wheels new and dont look like this, care to offer the manufacturer ??

While I can offer ways to keep them up from new, as I have, I cannot easily give you offer here. I have seen some guys locally polish with a Dremel using metal polishes and achieving nice results.

I might suggest checking out some sites thru google, Eastwood offers metal polishing and English Custom Polishes use to offer an area with advice and how to polish aluminum correctly.

167christopher_2-med.jpg
 
I would have sent those back before mounting them, they look horrible.
 
If I had to guess, I'd say a pad that was past its replacement time.

Those can be removed with enough time, but I'm with the others - I'd send 'em back.

If you're a patient person, use rubber nitrile gloves directly on the surface with a fine metal/billet polish - but it's going to take a long, long time.
 
Most companies will not allow returns after a tire has been mounted, I think hes stuck with them.
 
A4 1.8tqm said:
Hey Mike,

A buddy of mine ordered a new set of wheels, they are un-coated aluminum and arrived all swirled out.

He contacted the manufacturer and they said, Oh well those will just always be there, or you can't do anything about that... something to that effect.
Click to expand...


I agree with everyone else, the quality of finish on those wheels is unacceptable unless the advertising copy boasted that they come with swirls and scratches.

I would take these pictures and even more pictures and write a letter to the owner of the company and let him know that the quality of product his employees are releasing to the public is going to cause them to lose customers to the competition. Since I don't now the specifics of the deal your friend made, I don't want to place blame on anyone, for all I know he bought those wheels and they were advertised as "Seconds" because of the damage? I don't know?

If he purchased the brand new and they were supposed to have a high shine finish without swirls or scratches then something went wrong with quality control and I'm confident the owner doesn't know about it, if he does then it's just a matter of matching the finish quality of the wheel to how they're advertised and if the product doesn't match the advertising your friend should have never had tires mounted onto the rims to start with but now that he has he can still challenge the company for replacements.

With the Internet, there's a lot you can do to bring attention to the company and anyone involved with selling you an inferior product and this will give you power and leverage and eventually replacements without the swirls and scratches.


As to how to fix those wheels? 2 ways...

The only way to remove the swirls out of aluminum and just to point out swirls means scratches "in" the aluminum itself, is to "level" the surface until the upper most portion of the surface is level with the lowest depth of scratches in the wheel.

That's going to be a lot of work. You can do this yourself or farm it out to a wheel polishing company that has all the right tools and products to do the job quickly.

I've fixed damaged wheel by wet-sanding the aluminum flat and the polishing the aluminum back to a a brilliant shine but it's a lot of work and the more complex the design of the wheel the more difficult it will be and the more time it will require.

As bad as these wheels are, I would highly recommend taking on the company and demanding replacements, otherwise, find a wheel polishing company and hire them to undo the damage.

Start by sharing this thread with the owner of the wheel company.


:)
 
Another way to try to fix these wheels yourself would be to try out the

Flitz Mini ScuffPads 6 Pack, 1500 Grit


These ScuffPads are not just steel wool pads, they are made of resin-coated non-woven abrasives in cut fiber strands


We recently hosted Oley Jentzsch, the President of Flitz Metal Polishes and we used these ScuffPads numerous times on a variety of surfaces including Aluminum and they work great.

After shooting the video with Oley and I had more time to really work over the aluminum wheel we used in the video, I started out using the Scuffpads to remove the deeper pitting and corrosion which would be the same thing I would do if they wheels were scratched and they worked great.

Video: How to clean and polish aluminum wheels by machine with Flitz Metal Polish


I also used them on this brass boat propeller, which was scored with grinding marks and I was able to remove most of the shallow scratches and then polish the brass to a high gloss.


DASanderTest04.jpg




:)
 
killrwheels@autogeek said:
I have uncoated aluminum wheels from Iforged and bought new from them. I can only offer they did NOT come from the factory like this and that these companies can indeed polish them to a high luster. I also have friends running CCW wheels new and don't look like this, care to offer the manufacturer??
Click to expand...

They are CCW wheels. For the high price my buddy paid, I had VERY high expectations. When I was told that the company said "you can't do anything about it" I lost all respect for them.Are you saying the Iforged wheels came nearly flawless from the factory, or you had to put in some work to get them up to par?

Dubbin1 said:
I would have sent those back before mounting them, they look horrible.
Click to expand...

I agree, I would not have accepted the wheels because they look horrible, well they look great from a distance in the right light...

Dubbin1 said:
Most companies will not allow returns after a tire has been mounted, I think hes stuck with them.
Click to expand...

The tires were already mounted when they were shipped, it was a package deal. :xyxthumbs:

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I agree with everyone else, the quality of finish on those wheels is unacceptable unless the advertising copy boasted that they come with swirls and scratches.
Click to expand...

:laughing: With the newest finish we offer... Swirled out!

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I would take these pictures and even more pictures and write a letter to the owner of the company and let him know that the quality of product his employees are releasing to the public is going to cause them to lose customers to the competition. Since I don't now the specifics of the deal your friend made, I don't want to place blame on anyone, for all I know he bought those wheels and they were advertised as "Seconds" because of the damage? I don't know?

If he purchased the brand new and they were supposed to have a high shine finish without swirls or scratches then something went wrong with quality control and I'm confident the owner doesn't know about it, if he does then it's just a matter of matching the finish quality of the wheel to how they're advertised and if the product doesn't match the advertising your friend should have never had tires mounted onto the rims to start with but now that he has he can still challenge the company for replacements.

With the Internet, there's a lot you can do to bring attention to the company and anyone involved with selling you an inferior product and this will give you power and leverage and eventually replacements without the swirls and scratches.


As to how to fix those wheels? 2 ways...

The only way to remove the swirls out of aluminum and just to point out swirls means scratches "in" the aluminum itself, is to "level" the surface until the upper most portion of the surface is level with the lowest depth of scratches in the wheel.

That's going to be a lot of work. You can do this yourself or farm it out to a wheel polishing company that has all the right tools and products to do the job quickly.

I've fixed damaged wheel by wet-sanding the aluminum flat and the polishing the aluminum back to a a brilliant shine but it's a lot of work and the more complex the design of the wheel the more difficult it will be and the more time it will require.

As bad as these wheels are, I would highly recommend taking on the company and demanding replacements, otherwise, find a wheel polishing company and hire them to undo the damage.

Start by sharing this thread with the owner of the wheel company.


:)
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the advice, I will post the results whether he returns them or spends many hours working on getting them to look worthy of the price paid.

Here's little un-boxing video
 
Iforged Purchase

The pics I added were date of delivery. Left in spare bedroom till I could get them installed. Only needed a light polish after install to remove finger prints and bling-bling up. IMO they could have done a little more work in spokes but small area and really being picky at best.

I am shocked that CCW sent them out like that new. They almost had my $$$ but one of the managers was slightly less than rude when I asked to match Iforged pricing or best possible deal. After buying other than perhaps Fikse I am satisfied. Funny thing, everyone still calls them HRE's ....

http://www.photohost.org/gallery/data/500/167christopher_2_009-med.jpg
These were fronts on other side of room.
 
My friend Chris, who bought the wheels, communicated with Dan from CCW and asked him to look at this thread. Just like Mike said, he didn't know that passed quality control and quickly agreed that the wheels were not finished out properly. They will fix the problem at no cost to Chris. I'll post pics when he gets them back.

Thank you to all who gave advice, both in this thread and through PM's. :urtheman:
 
I would assume nothing less from CCW. They usually stand behind their work.
 
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