My first project - polished wheels

samonwheels · Postby **samonwheels** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 7:55 pm

Starting my first real project on my 1999 NB8A and thought I'd post it here for interests sake and for general advice from anyone. I love the polished wheels off the 10AE and heritage editions so I am trying to replicate them by polishing my stock wheels. I've seen a couple of people polish the NB8B wheels on this forum but havent seen any NB8a ones around.

I probably don't realise what I'm getting myself into but I'm gonna go for it anyway and I'll do some posts and pictures as I go along. I have some paint stripper and various grains of sandpaper and will borrow a buffer. If anyone has some handy tips or great guides I would appreciate it. In the mean time I just need to either find some spare wheels or put my car on blocks haha.

DaveWA · Postby **DaveWA** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:19 pm

good luck mate,
I am in the very slow process of restoring some 10 Ae wheels...taking my time....
looks like my 10 Ae rims were plated to retain the polished look.....
Best of lusk

fastfreddygassit · Postby **fastfreddygassit** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 8:41 pm

Good luck! It is a very fulfilling job that just requires a moderate expense of materials/equipment and heaps of elbow grease!!
I have polished wheels and motorcycle frames in the past and the hardest part is removing the hard anodising on the alloy.
Not sure if your wheels are hard anodised or just painted?
Please do some simple web searching on polishing wheels and check out the links for motorbike wheels as they are usually done to a very high standard.
Invest in some Brown Tripoli & White Rouge and different mops/buffs. That makes the biggest difference.
Be aware that if they are highly polished that upkeep is a PITA!!! Water marks will get you pulling your hair out!!
Keep us updated with pics please

samonwheels · Postby **samonwheels** » Sun Jul 11, 2010 11:32 pm

From what I've read mazda just puts a clearcoat on the wheels which shouldn't be too hard to remove... can anyone confirm this though?

wun911 · Postby **wun911** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 2:43 am

I think its painted then clear coated...

Respect to those who want to polsih instead of adding the weight of paint.....

Tezzax5 · Postby **Tezzax5** » Mon Jul 12, 2010 9:12 am

Tip No1
Remove Tyre from rim
Wash the rim
Apply heaps of paint stripper then ( Place the entire rim into a garbage bag and seal the bag)
After leaving overnight open the bag and put on a little more paint stripper
After about half an hour use a PLASTIC PAINT SCRAPPER to remove the paint
With this process i didn't have to sand my rims

Tip No2

Use ebay to locate your chrome centres

Dirty messy job but very rewarding

I did mine months ago (no Clear Coat) just a lick of polish every few months will keep them looking great.

samonwheels · Postby **samonwheels** » Mon Jul 19, 2010 4:16 pm

So I'm making progress on the wheels, ended up getting them soda blasted by a mate to save the trouble of removing tyres and dealing with paint stripper etc... started off polishing with some steel wool and they come up somewhat shiny but still a rough finish, so I've started sanding them down. Will post some pictures tomorrow.