polishing santa monica's

[gavinvr6 0]

hey guys im after a few tips. i got some 17" santa monica's. 3 out of 4 are actually not to bad but the 1st was started on by the previous owner and not finished. so im gunna strip em all, ive managed to sand off the laquear on one spoke and gave it a few lighter grades and a final lick of polishing paste to get an idea how it will look but i had to use 80 grit just to get the bloody laquaer off and its leving some nasty scrathes that are proving hard to remove.

questions are:

1. whats the best way to strip em reasonably quickly without causing to much work later on. i only want to remove the clear laquer on the spokes not the gun metal grey colour on the inside of the spokes.

2. what sort of polish should i use?

3. i got a brown wax type bar for 1st stage and a blue wax bar for 2nd stage and liquid metal polish for the finish, are these suitable?

4. also will my 4 inch felt and 4 inch cotton mops be suitable mounted in a battery or power drill?

and for some opinions please, should i try for mirror finish or just go for a very shiney finish.

[VR6Pete 1,455]

I'd imagine you would need an electric polisher!

I bought a polishing kit that had all sorts of compounds from http://www.frost.co.uk/ which met all my metal polishing needs.

[bungy 2]

When you've done them mate get some photo's up of how you did it as i've got a set with the laquer peeling aswell.

[gavinvr6 0]

right good news is after a good old dollop of paint stripper and a bit of elbow grease the finish of the rims under the laquer is close to mirror anyway, but since the wheels had quite a lot of peel and the previous owner had tried badly to strip one with what looked like an angle grinder, i had to go all out on the first one. once the rot had been scraped out using a wire brush on a drill, i levelled the area using a tight wound flap wheel in 80 grit, then a 120 grit flap drum and a 240 grit flap drum then 480, 800, 1200 dry by hand then 1200 wet by hand, and then a good seing to with some polish on a felt wheel. and this is what i got. still needs another go with a finer polish and a finishing buff with some autolsol. but im pretty pleased with myself for a 1st try

but if to start the wheel is in pretty good shape it should just be a case of paint stripper and cleaning out the corrosion (which is a pain in the arse) then sand the corrosion area and polish the whole wheel to make it match

apologies for picture quality, its a really cheap and very old camera

[ben_notts 0]

nitromors cuts all that diamond cut / laquer straight out. if youve just got worming and tarnished laquer then you can just re- seal, but if you wanna bring em right out or they are curbed etc then youll need to break out the wet n dry from 260 up to 2000 - wet from 400 with wd 40. i find that after a coupla grades cutting back with a paste like autosol really bring out the pitting.

thats where you at, but if you dont seal them youll be re-doing them again before christmas. machine mart do a drill type polishing kit with 2 mops and 2 soap bars mop the hell out of them to give a full mirror finish then seal with something like megs 3rd stage / chem guys wet mirror finish / carnuba.

if your not gonna take em off for winter the budget way of protecting them is vaseline on the faces nice n thick, not too thick obv. but this will seal them till the road salt goes away!

theres a good thread on edition on home polishing / re-furb, from that ive done a few sets bbs rx2's were my nice 1st set i did. easy to do and come up real nice - i dont envy you doing them santa monicas tho, they dont split do they?!

[bungy 2]

Might have to strip and paint mine as I think they're a little bit too far gone.

[gavinvr6 0]

ben_ no they dont split, but im just doing the flat's of the faces, the centre's and lips/rim edge will be painted, probably gloss black, they are pretty easy to do though. once you get past that damn diamond cut effect laquer. its hard as bloody nails. thanks for the advice on protecting them, i have one of them machine mart kits am on 2nd stage soap bar with 2 of the wheels and 1st stage with the 3rd, but the 4th im saving for last as its the worst one. ive gone from a 240 grit to a 1200 wet/soapy then onto the polish bars, brown then blue. the finish is not mirror but its pretty good for a 1st try

[bungy 2]

They'll be a labour of love, good work buddy.

[MJ Vr6 79]

Did someone say polishing... LoL!!

Click the links below dude!!! Quite easy enuff to do !!! (h)

http://www.nwdubs.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=1829

http://www.nwdubs.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=2588

Let me know what you think!

[bungy 2]

Nice work. Couldn't help noticing the amount of weights on one of those wheels. Never seen that many before.

[gavinvr6 0]

ahhhh mj was wondering when you would find this lol,

any tips you can gimme fella? i got em all sanded resonably smooth and a slight mirror finish to em but just cant get that last 'bling' factor out of em, im using 2 stages of soap bar (brown then blue) on a felt wheel and autoglym on a cottom mop. gotta be done on a tight budget tho mate so expensive or flash tools or paste's and polishes are out of the question and a lot of the work is being done by hand

will add a new pic of the best one and can you tell me where to go from that stage

[MJ Vr6 79]

Nice work. Couldn't help noticing the amount of weights on one of those wheels. Never seen that many before.

Mate' date=' I did tell the owner that the basket may be warped!!! Thats why so many weights.. Ive never seen so many weights like that myself..[/b']

[MJ Vr6 79]

ahhhh mj was wondering when you would find this lol' date='

any tips you can gimme fella? i got em all sanded resonably smooth and a slight mirror finish to em but just cant get that last 'bling' factor out of em, im using 2 stages of soap bar (brown then blue) on a felt wheel and autoglym on a cottom mop. gotta be done on a tight budget tho mate so expensive or flash tools or paste's and polishes are out of the question and a lot of the work is being done by hand

will add a new pic of the best one and can you tell me where to go from that stage

[/quote']

Brown is not needed dude if your getting it smooth as a babys bum!!! Brown is only needed when you are just sanding to 250coarse sandpaper, then slap the brown on a mop, but its a certain mop that you have to buy...

If you are going all the way to 2000, you need to use white compound, after white, Blue, then after use Meguiars Nxt, small green tub, blue lid, Autoglym is not all that.. Hope this helps.