Weld Forged Wheel restoration

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BuckeyeChuck

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Hey All,

I picked up a set of Weld Forged wheels in need of a desperate restoration. As you can see from the pics, the wheels were very heavily oxidized. I worked 1 section with some 1500 to break up some of the oxidation, then polished with a wool pad on a rotary and some Mother Mag&Alum polish. The clarity came back great, but the wheels still have some heavy pitting on the lip portion and some nicks. How do I go about removing the pits/nicks? Any recommendations for polish/pads
 
To remove nicks and pits you're gonna have to remove surrounding material down to the bottom of said defects.
Some defects you might just have to live with.
 
Did a little more cleaning/polishing today. Ended up sanding the majority of the lip with 220,500,800,1000,1500 and gave the rest of the wheel a good scubbing with OOO steel wool. Still have a lot of polishing to do on the front side but the back side turned out great. Finished with Tripoli and white compounds, then hand rubbed with Mothers Alum and Mag. Heres a few side by sides of the wheel in progress vs. what the others look like
 
First of all, :welcome: to AGO :dblthumb2:

I like to see members taking their wheels to the next level. These are undoubtedly my favorite threads.

With that said, I'm sorry to say that you are working backwards.
You finished out sanding at 1500grit (not concerned with the triple ought right now), then went back down to a 300-400 grit rouge, followed by a 600 grit or so final polish.

What are you spinning your rouge on, wheelwise?
What method of sanding?
 
VT,

Im using 6" spiral swen pads at about 1800-2000 RPM. Ill be honest the front didn't quite come out to the high luster I was hoping for which make sense with going back down to the grit of rouge I was using.

Im wetsanding in the order I posted above.

So question to you, say I end up at the 1500 grit, where should I be going from there?
 
If it were me, I'd be going straight to white from 1500.
BUT...I rarely sand past 600-800 grit anyways. I let the wheels and compound do the work.

What I really think that you should do is get your SFPM's up. You're wheeling too small of a spiral sewn at low rpm's to get any decent correction to produce bling. Kinda just coloring the forged wheels right now.

Hope that what I'm saying is making sense. I spent a chunk of today dealing with this Pro Star, and the turkey left-overs have gotten my eyes droopy :p

 
I just sent you a pm of Caswell's metal buffing guide. Read this and I'll be happy to help you in any way that I can. Against forum rules to post this link.
Here you will get an idea of proper sfpm's (surface feet per minute), and how to pair wheels to compounds.

edit

also busch enterprises buffing guide
 
VT, would there be a chance that you could also forward that link to me. I have not done any aluminum wheel restorations and would be interested in having some background info. I know I can google the information but I would be interested in seeing the specific buffing guide you are referring to. Thanks
 
kochdalton87 said:
VT, would there be a chance that you could also forward that link to me. I have not done any aluminum wheel restorations and would be interested in having some background info. I know I can google the information but I would be interested in seeing the specific buffing guide you are referring to. Thanks
Click to expand...

Done.

BuckeyeChuck said:
VT,

Im using 6" spiral swen pads at about 1800-2000 RPM. Ill be honest the front didn't quite come out to the high luster I was hoping for which make sense with going back down to the grit of rouge I was using.

Im wetsanding in the order I posted above.

So question to you, say I end up at the 1500 grit, where should I be going from there?
Click to expand...

I am assuming that your wheel looked like this internet photo from koespfm prior to polishing. Thus your decision to use the triple ought wool. (I read a 2009 post from Mike where he guesses that the grit equivalency to be around 1000-1200 grit). So again, working backwards.



Optimal sfpm's needed to correct defects in aluminum range from 3600-7000 surface feet per minute, depending on the composition of the piece.

You're between 2700 and 3000 sfpm's with your setup. Not too far off from the lower end. So in your case more buffing time is required to attain correction.

Kinda like needing more section passes using a PC da as compared to the Rupes.

If your wheel looked similar to the above photo before the hand application of the Mothers Aluminum and Mag polish then you have your answer.

Diffracted light limits bling on metal just as it does with paint.

You will have to completely remove each previous grit's sanding marks before proceeding to the next grit when sanding.
 
I just realized that I did not give you a simple solution. I could offer a bona fide process if you could post a close up photo that pinpoints the wheel's current condition.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...chings-other-surface-defects-your-camera.html

If not, forgo the sanding steps on a section of the wheel. Go back to your compounding step using the tripoli. Increase both your pressure and your working time.

Check your results. If uniform in appearance, then proceed again with white bar.

Many pro finishers skip tripoli altogether when correcting billet and use the green stainless bar instead. Check their results, then proceed to white.

The biggest tip that I can share is to make sure that your wheel is always cutting (as opposed to coloring) by wheeling against the piece as opposed to wheeling off of the piece) as shown in the diagram provided in the links. Regardless of how you have to position your rotary to access angles of the wheel.
 
VT,

Heres some better pics of the lip after hand polishing. Almost like I have some very fine scratches. Now let me ask you this, do you think the white rouge is too course of a step before hand polishing? Would I be better off to go with maybe a heavier polish(like megs medium cut), then onto a final polish?

Also I fixed one of the larger nicks that I circled in the original photos in red. Almost be the "S" on the lip. Came out great!

Thanks again for the help, I've honestly never been to a forum that has been this helpful.
 
BuckeyeChuck said:
VT,

Now let me ask you this, do you think the white rouge is too course of a step before hand polishing? Would I be better off to go with maybe a heavier polish(like megs medium cut), then onto a final polish?

White compound offers a very light cut. Scratches are probably RIDS from your wet sanding steps. You cut it pretty deep grit wise. But even seasoned pros have posted issues when using tripoli, thus the reason so many skip tripoli and use the green bar. Best advice is if the white doesn't clear it up to your expectation, test spot a small area using the green. Inspect, then proceed.

Also I fixed one of the larger nicks that I circled in the original photos in red. Almost be the "S" on the lip. Came out great!

I love it when a plan comes together.

Thanks again for the help, I've honestly never been to a forum that has been this helpful.
Click to expand...

People here are helpful beyond the detailing aspect of this forum. I used to post daily on an off topic thread that only 4 or so members posted daily on. This required a little research and thought on my part. I did this mainly to keep my mind off the fact that my aged mother was knocking on heaven's door. I opened up in a pm and a forum member stepped up with words of wisdom and kind thoughts helping me through this ordeal. I always had someone to lean on that was scripturally based.
She did pull through and is doing well.
For this I was, and am greatful.
 
Update: Did a little more work on the wheels upping the speed to the correct sfpm. I didn't have time to pick up any green compound yet, but the increased speed did bring clarity back to the wheel. Went from almost a satin look to the polished. I still have some sanding scratches to work out on the lip, which I believe the green will correct, like VT stated, but the spoked portions which weren't in bad shape came out looking awesome. In the pictured below they are the spokes at 6,9,11 o'clock.
 
Just be aware that IF you decide to use the green, it will be almost like starting over, rather than a follow up process like 205 chasing 105. The process is on par with wetsanding again, but only with compound.

You will be correcting newb sanding mistake ( no offense intended) on your way to Pro results.

Your results are not typical for first time wheel turn arounds. Most that post here quit before they see an end product anywhere near that which you attained. Those that post pics anyway.
Yours is one of, if not the best that I've come across for someone hand sanding and using hand tools.

Remarkable :props:
 
Well, the green compound was the ticket. I would say it took away 90% of the sand scratches. I followed that with white compound and I still need to hand polish them. I've got the wheels about 2/3 of the way done now, still have to finish some fine details such as the lug holes and removing the old wheel weights, but this has been a fun project thus far. I've got around 10 hours in the wheel right now, I would say another 2-4 will net me the look I'm going for and for what I have in the wheels, I'm not complaining one bit. Here's some pics so far:

Thanks again for the help VT!
 
Amazing job all around :props:

I realize that your main issue was going to deep with the sanding. However, there's something about tripoli that trips up pros. Maybe to large of a size of Aluminum Oxide or too much in the mix. I see threads constantly referring to this issue.

10 hours ain't bad though. It will only get better as you get more comfortable with your own process. Once you get them all processed, all that you'll have to do is hit them with the white periodically or buy a rotary extension and small pads & backing plates and use the Mothers Mag and Aluminum Polish like I did in this thread http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...luminum-wheels-aluminum-finishing-polish.html
 
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