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DIY- Wheel Polisher


Stevexc

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Have you found an ideal diameter for the V belt pulley? I MacGyvered some parachute cord on my grinder and sanded on one of my wheels this weekend,but want to invest in a proper pulley and long belt for next weekend's project. Amazon.com has a pretty wide selection of metal pulleys with half inch arbors. I luckily have a Delta grinder with variable speed as well. Happy wheeling!

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Have you found an ideal diameter for the V belt pulley? I MacGyvered some parachute cord on my grinder and sanded on one of my wheels this weekend,but want to invest in a proper pulley and long belt for next weekend's project. Amazon.com has a pretty wide selection of metal pulleys with half inch arbors. I luckily have a Delta grinder with variable speed as well. Happy wheeling!

 

Umm haven't really found an ideal diameter, I just bought the longest one my local auto parts store had, It would do up to about a 17 maybe 18" wheel. A pulley is the next thing on my list, the plastic wheel centres Im using wear out wayyyy too fast so lately ive just been running the belt straight off the stub on the grinder. It slows the RPM down a bit but still works fine, its at a safer speed now haha. But having a variable speed grinder you wouldn't have the problem! 

I might have to keep an eye out in Gumtree for a variable speed one!

 

How did your wheel/s come up?

 

Ive spend the last few days trying to get some of my wheels done. Got a pair of SSR Mk2s done and a pair of SSR Formula Meshies done. Also found a place that sells Jewellers Rouge (red rouge) which is meant to give that show car mirror finish, I've only been going up to White Rouge as thats all my local hardware store goes up to, so will be interesting to see how much better going that one step further brings them up! 

 

Also next on my list is ordering a powder coating system! Figured I can buy one (even with shipping from the states)  for less then a shop will charge to powder coat the 4 centres from the meshies! So will order that and pick up a baking oven up soon! 

 

Anyways heres some photos-

 

Before-

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Inner Barrel comparison-

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Comparison of the meshies barrels-

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Lips done!-

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Mk2s all done-

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Ohh the new hardware for the meshies also arrived today =)

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Finished the meshies today!

 

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Just need to do the centers now =)

 

Also ordered some Red Rouge (aka Jewelers rouge) which i meant to bring them to the Show Room mirror finish. Will be interesting to see how big of a difference it really makes.  

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  • 3 weeks later...

That red rouge finish will last through one wash then all the minor haze will be back :P good work, still need to do this... now more than ever ;)

 

 

I didnt find it really made THAT much of a difference anyways, from what people were telling me it will be a HUGE difference, sure I could notice it was a slightly better mirror finish, but not as good as I expected. Haven't noticed a haze yet though, and I have washed them down a few times before people came to look at them to get the dust and shit off them from sitting in the garage.  

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Did you do these with the centers out?

 

 

Nah, I took the centres out to clean the barrels, then I mounted the centres from the inside of the wheel but facing forwards so I could get right up into the centre. If that makes any sense hahaha

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Nah, I took the centres out to clean the barrels, then I mounted the centres from the inside of the wheel but facing forwards so I could get right up into the centre. If that makes any sense 

 

Totally. I've been trying to come up with a simple way to do them with the centers out, but it's not looking good...   :rofl:

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Totally. I've been trying to come up with a simple way to do them with the centers out, but it's not looking good...   :rofl:

 

Without the centres the only way I can think of is doing it all by hand, which would be a lost slower then using the polisher, obviously hahaha

Unless you could make up a plate the bolts to the 4 stud hub then fits to the 20 bolt holes used to hold the centre in place?

Shouldn't be TOO hard to make one up, just have a steel plate cut into a circle the same size as the centre of the meshie then have the holes drilled. But really wouldnt be any better then reverse mounting the centre like I did, as you will still have the heads of the bolts coming through the front. Thats a bit of a tricky one  :confused:

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Without the centres the only way I can think of is doing it all by hand, which would be a lost slower then using the polisher, obviously hahaha

Unless you could make up a plate the bolts to the 4 stud hub then fits to the 20 bolt holes used to hold the centre in place?

 

I wasn't going to use all 20. Just maybe some 2" wide flat steel to go from each lug nut out to 2-3 of the bolt holes? But a piece of plywood cut into a circle could work too...

 

 

But really wouldnt be any better then reverse mounting the centre like I did

 

I can't do that on these wheels because the way the barrel is shaped, the center is too big to fit through and bolt to the back side...

 

 

 as you will still have the heads of the bolts coming through the front.

 

Yeah, I was thinking different bolts for this, maybe just some small button heads? 

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I wasn't going to use all 20. Just maybe some 2" wide flat steel to go from each lug nut out to 2-3 of the bolt holes? But a piece of plywood cut into a circle could work too...

 

 

I can't do that on these wheels because the way the barrel is shaped, the center is too big to fit through and bolt to the back side...

 

 

Yeah, I was thinking different bolts for this, maybe just some small button heads? 

 

 

Yeah that could work too, I wouldnt use all 20 hole either way, I only held the centre in place with 4 bolts when I flipped it to polish it.

 

Ohh truee, I just assumed they were SSR Meshies as well hahaha, What wheels are you looking at doing? =)

 

and yeah bolts would smaller heads would work better, I just used normal Hex bolts, so they sat out about 5mm, but I could carefully get the sand paper under then the get right into the centre of the wheel. Knocked my fingers a few times though  :rofl:

 

Another option would be just sanding them with the centres bolted in then remove the centres give it a quick hand sand and clean any dirts ect out of the area covered by the centre and use a Sisal polishing wheel with black polishing compound in the area the centre covers??

I know a lot of people rekon a sisal wheel is too harsh for alloy wheels but Ive used it on a few hard to sand areas or areas that have been missed but the sanding process and you really cant see the difference. Even use a sticked rag wheel if you arent keen to use the Sisal wheel might take longer but will still bring it up nice. Really depends how picky you are I guess.

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Ohh truee, I just assumed they were SSR Meshies as well hahaha, What wheels are you looking at doing? =)

 

Watanabe RS-8s. You can see here that the way the barrel is shaped (thinner in the middle) that you can't put the face in from the back. Wish I could...   ^_^

 

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Another option would be just sanding them with the centres bolted in then remove the centres give it a quick hand sand and clean any dirts ect out of the area covered by the centre and use a Sisal polishing wheel with black polishing compound in the area the centre covers??

 

Looks like that's how I'll have to go, so...   :sweat:

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Looks like that's how I'll have to go, so... :sweat:

I've been playing around with some one piece Westerns that are knock offs of enkei ek32s.

 

I did 3 by putting them on the car on jacks and using it to spin them. They look pretty good. I just did the 4th by hand and with a power drill and I think its better than the others.

 

First I stripped them with paint stripper to take off the clear coat. Then 600 grit to even them out. I used a headlight repair kit for a power drill to work out the bad spots. Then 600 again to even out those tool marks.

 

Then 1200 and 2000 by hand. Then buffing compound with a mother's ball. Then mother's aluminum polish with a clean mother's ball.

 

Took about 2 hrs for one wheel and it looks like chrome.

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  • 2 months later...

Like the wheel polisher set-up(s). Add a sewing machine pedal(variable rheostat) so you can adjust speed after ballparking pully sizes. Wish wheel manufacturers would use stainless steel....polish once then DONE. Nickle plate over aluminum would b better as well.Factory steel wheels often weigh less than aftermarket alloys....check yours n see.

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  • 1 month later...

Couldn't you just use a 110 swamp cooler motor and belt.

Metal cooler pulley, wire it through a dimmer switch

Parts all available at the local Home Depot

Farmer

 

This gives me a similar idea...

 

If you bolted a wheel hub to the center of an old school belt-driven shop fan (with the blades removed), you'd never have to remove the belt. Just bolt on a wheel and go...

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