Style 42 wheel polishing

[sterling msport]

Hey everyone, thought this might be of some interest because I know how much of a pain these style 42 wheels are with the clear coat peeling or chipping and making these cars look way older than they should.

Well I am pretty into the whole car scene in Kentucky and always loved the look of polished wheels. These wheels have the potential to look amazing, although I wish mine were 18s, so I decided to take on the task of polishing the lips on my set.

I've hand polished a few sets of wheels before and after attempting to do one wheel by hand I remembered how much I hated doing it. So in the work smarter not harder mindset I wanted to come up with a contraption to do most of the work for me

Here's what I came up with


Just a small 3/4 hp electric motor that I attached a belt to that spins the driveshaft attached to two bearings and a tractor tire. I was able to take the face off the wheel with a piece of 2x4 and a small sledge then strip the clear with aircraft stripper. The tire then gets deflated and the wheel "mounted" on that.

After some trials I finally got it working pretty well. The first round was a little sketchy Haha. Some calculations later I found out the final wheel speed was around 42 mph , none the less way faster than I wanted to be considered safe. I didn't take off the tires either so that left the valve stem to come around something like 300 times a second to hit my fingers while sanding... And that wasn't going to fly with me. After some reducing by a smaller pully on the drive motor and a bigger pully on the wheel side it slowed it down to a manageable 18 mph which I can live with. I didn't want to spend $3-500 on a phase converter or whatever it's called to slow it down even more without burning out the motor.

Anddd the moment you all have been waiting!! The results!

[JimLev]

They came out nice. What's that yellow stuff, polish?

[auaq]

"Patent Pending"

[sterling msport]

They came out nice. What's that yellow stuff, polish?

Thanks the yellow stuff is the aircraft stripper I used to take off the clear. Some super nasty stuff that will eat through basically, it comes in an aerosol and a gel that I use to put on with a paint brush. About 5 minutes later and it starts bubbling and you take a hose to it to just wash all the clear off

[sterling msport]

I've polished a few sets already, one set had the tires dismounted and it took maybe 2 hours from start to finish. Starting from 100 grit to 2000 grit sandpaper then 2 rounds of polishing with a buffer wheel and an angle grinder

[tmvE39E53Z32TT]

The yellow stuff is the brush-on aircraft paint remover, to remove the peeling/damaged clear coat.

[Mless5]

Crafty!

[RyansBMW]

That reminds me, I gotta get my 42's redone. Even tho they are just winter wheels, they look so bad it annoys the hell out of me. Maybe Ill give this a try.

[Dking078]

Very nice results.... and methods

[WBAD530i]

Great job on the Style 42s!

I have a few questions if you or anyone here has the answers...

If you fix curb rash on the outer lip of the style 42...like sanding it down, filling in with compound sanding down smooth...This will ruin the wheel for a mirror polish, right? It just needs to be painted?
If a professional does the repair, do they do this process any differently to preserve the metal, and make it possible to mirror finish again?

My style 42s are corroded and they look awful. The faces are in good shape, its the lips that are terrible. Is it possible to fix them and get them back to a point where they can be mirror polished?

Sorry for the bad quality, but here is a couple pics of what I have to work with.

[gmak]

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but wouldn't a Dremel and appropriate fine sanding / polishing bit accomplish the same thing without the engine and tractor tire?

[WBAD530i]

Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but wouldn't a Dremel and appropriate fine sanding / polishing bit accomplish the same thing without the engine and tractor tire?

The marks left from sanding wouldn't be as smooth and flow all the way around the wheel. Using a dremel might create grooves in the lip if you spend too much time on one spot.

My wheels pictured above will probably require what you are describing just so I can sand down the corrosion, then maybe a belt sander to get the flow all the way around the wheel to even it up.

[sterling msport]

Great job on the Style 42s!

I have a few questions if you or anyone here has the answers...

If you fix curb rash on the outer lip of the style 42...like sanding it down, filling in with compound sanding down smooth...This will ruin the wheel for a mirror polish, right? It just needs to be painted?
If a professional does the repair, do they do this process any differently to preserve the metal, and make it possible to mirror finish again?

My style 42s are corroded and they look awful. The faces are in good shape, its the lips that are terrible. Is it possible to fix them and get them back to a point where they can be mirror polished?

Sorry for the bad quality, but here is a couple pics of what I have to work with.

Thanks for the kind words everyone!! I had this idea kicking around in my head for a little while and was able to get the motor for free from a buddy so I thought I'd give it a shot.

If you were to fill it with anything it would need to be tig welded and then sanded down to shape the lip right again.... In my opinion way to much work for these wheels. Mine had some curbing from the po but was able to get 95% out.

The dremmel won't work because of the reasons stated above. It's too hard to control pressure and will end up making them look even worse.

One of two of my wheels was about as bad, if not worse, than the ones wbad posted. Try starting with 200 grit and it should all come out

[WBAD530i]

That's the encouragement I was looking for. Didn't have the confidence or time to just start sanding away and ruining them further. I have 2 of these in awesome shape almost new. If I can repair 2 of mine, and just polish up the other two, mount some rubber, and I'll be gold. Give me time to really work on the 2 worst ones and bring them back to life. Thanks Sterling! I'm going for it...by HAND. Don't have anything cool like your setup.

[gmak]

The dremmel won't work because of the reasons stated above. It's too hard to control pressure and will end up making them look even worse.

Here

and here

as an example.

[WBAD530i]

Here

and here

as an example.

Those don't look like style 42s to me! I think the difference would be the size of the lip you're working on. Idk.

[sterling msport]

That's the encouragement I was looking for. Didn't have the confidence or time to just start sanding away and ruining them further. I have 2 of these in awesome shape almost new. If I can repair 2 of mine, and just polish up the other two, mount some rubber, and I'll be gold. Give me time to really work on the 2 worst ones and bring them back to life. Thanks Sterling! I'm going for it...by HAND. Don't have anything cool like your setup.

No problem man ! Good luck and God speed Haha. By hand is definitely a chore and you are going to be sore for a while.

Get some of the aircraft stripper and let it to its thing. Mine took 2 rounds to get 99% of the clear off.

I forgot one super important detail. You need to get an angle grinder or a bench grinder and a polishing wheel. I use a cheapo Harbor freight angle grinder, their 5 inch buffing wheel, and the red and white rogue compound.

Sand from 200 to 400 to 800 to 1000 wet (with a touch of soap) and then you can go to town on the buffing. This part isn't the most fun and I recommend some eye protection and headphones or ear plugs. You will be covered in polishing rogue and little threads from the buffing wheel but once you see that mirror shining back at you it's all worth it

[sterling msport]

Here

and here

as an example.

I didn't have a flap wheel when I tried and maybe that was my main issue. But I think to do an entire wheel like that would be extremely hard and expensive cause I'm sure those flap wheels aren't cheap and you're going to need a lot

But to fix some rash I think I'll try that method next time!

[Jamaican71]

Nice job! I had wanted to make a jig like that myself, but never got around to it. I ended up mounting buffing wheels to a harbor freight polisher and it did the trick nicely. Style 42 are a real pain to polish as you have to remove the center to get all the lip so your tire idea is pure genius. On Style 5 wheels the center inserts from the rear and you can hold in place with a couple of bolts while spinning. I mount my centers on an old front wheel hub so it will spin while I'm buffing. Nothing too fast so the weight of the wheel keeps it on the center.



The flap wheel is good for quick reduction and to even any gouges or scrapes, but a sisal wheel with cutting compound cuts quick and smooth. Follow with a denim wheel, then a loose cotton polishing wheel for a beautiful shine in about thirty minutes per wheel after you've stripped the clear with the aircraft stripper.

[Jason5driver]

Nice job! I had wanted to make a jig like that myself, but never got around to it. I ended up mounting buffing wheels to a harbor freight polisher and it did the trick nicely. Style 42 are a real pain to polish as you have to remove the center to get all the lip so your tire idea is pure genius. On Style 5 wheels the center inserts from the rear and you can hold in place with a couple of bolts while spinning. I mount my centers on an old front wheel hub so it will spin while I'm buffing. Nothing too fast so the weight of the wheel keeps it on the center.



The flap wheel is good for quick reduction and to even any gouges or scrapes, but a sisal wheel with cutting compound cuts quick and smooth. Follow with a denim wheel, then a loose cotton polishing wheel for a beautiful shine in about thirty minutes per wheel after you've stripped the clear with the aircraft stripper.

But, what do apply to the wheels after being polished to keep them from rusting...?

[Jamaican71]

I used Mother's or Meguiars. As long as you apply some kind of aluminum polish every month or so, it keeps the oxidation at bay. With Style 42 though, eventually it will creep out from behind the center again since water gets in between it and the lip.

[sterling msport]

Jamaican a buddy of mine has some style 5s I did as well but those were the one I did by hand. I wish I would have spent the money for some better compounds and wheels just to cut down on the time it took me to do everything

But yes, I like to use a few different polishes. Mothers aluminum wheel polish is good as well as blue magic and white Diamond polish. The white is probably my favorite as it has a wax in it and really helps keep the shine

[BimmrMeUpSnotty]

Try Flitz, good stuff too.

- - - Updated - - -

The oxidation is from water that pools up between the rim and the centers. After polishing, treat it with Sharkhide. Should be good for 1 to 2 years.

http://www.sharkhide.com/mpinfo.html

[sterling msport]

I used some silicone to seal the face to the barrel so I wouldn't have as much of an issue with water sitting between them.

That shark hide looks pretty awesome, I might have to pick up some of that and do a full repolish this winter then coat them with that!