Decided to try & recondition the Pizzas myself

[Gtdhw]

Original CC looking pretty bad. Thought what the hell, why not give it a shot.

6 hours later, that's one done. I think it turned out pretty well

[wheming]

Looks good!
I had a set I reconditioned to mirror polish and painted the cast spots red.
It looked pretty sweet on my white with red interior New Yorker turbo.

[85boostbox]

What did you end up using?

[cordes]

What did you end up using?

That's what I want to know. Mainly for the wheel weight recess and the side there too.

[Force Fed Mopar]

Method and compound please

[wheming]

Not sure what he did, but I stepped through sandpaper grits wetsanding then finished off with Mother's Aluminum polish.
It was the biggest pain in the balls ever, but they looked good. Like these.

[Gtdhw]

[TABLE="class: postbit_tbl, width: 100%, align: center"][TR][TD="class: alt1, bgcolor: #FFFFFF"]How about a complete how-to post, with step-by-step pics in a coupe days?
[/TD][/TR][/TABLE]

[GLHS60]

Looks great!! The T/As look good too. I have been using balancing fluid the past few years as wheel weights cause so much damage.

Thanks
Randy

[Vigo]

The hard thing about polishing pizza wheels is getting all the factory clearcoat off them first. If you dont, you're just polishing paint, and it doesn't really give the polished aluminum effect.

[Gtdhw]

The hard thing about polishing pizza wheels is getting all the factory clearcoat off them first. If you dont, you're just polishing paint, and it doesn't really give the polished aluminum effect.

This ended up being MUCH easier than I expected

[85glht]

Method and compound please

+1 here!! The wheel looks fantastic!

[Vigo]

This ended up being MUCH easier than I expected

Oh really? Do tell... I've got some swiss cheese wheels that need 'the treatment'.

[Gtdhw]

One more pic to get today, then I will have all the pics needed for a good step-by-step.

[DetroitTurbo]

really looking forward to your how-to!

[Gtdhw]

Step 1- Removing the Clear Coat


Disclaimer - I'm not a pro, and there might be better ways/products to do the job. I'm just a guy in his garage that decided to see if I could make my wheels look better. I had guys ask, so as detailed as I could make it, here'e what I did, step-by-step, with lots of pics. This is just the way I did it and your results may very.




What I started with.





Fist thing you need and available at most any auto parts store. One can is more than enough. AND GET SOME LATEX TYPE GLOVES!





By pouring the stripper directly on the brush, then applying a little at a time to the wheel, it was very controllable to get the stripper where I needed it and there was virtually no mess. If you don't pay it much attention, I guess it could get messy during application. A piece of card board underneath might not be a bad idea.





It only takes the stripper about 10-15 minutes to do it's thing. Using the brush to agitate, you can tell when it's ready, and if it needs more, just brush more on. Once it's ready, I used a paint stirring stick to easily remove the majority of the clear. It will come off in a sticky, but no too gooey consistency. You don't have to get it all off, just the majority. The paint stick made for a very nice tool for this. Do not use anything metal!






Then it's out to the power washer. Just a cheapy $100 unit from the local home store. It takes off the remaining CC with ease.( I have no idea why some pics were turned upside during upload.)




If you want to clean the backside of the wheel, now is a good time. Steel wool of scotch brite pad work great for this along with a good cleaner like Bleach White. Once you dry the wheel off, this is what you will see. It would be nice to keep the machined lines, but the polishing steps to get rid of the CC marks, make that all but impossible.





Step 2- Wet Sanding


Spay bottle with water (a few drops of dish soap for lube) and sand/wet sanding paper. Wearing glove during this step will avoid worn, bloody, fingertips, lol. Depending on how much corrosion you have, will determine how aggressive your starting grit needs to be. If it's bad, you might need 220 dry, or even 80. I started out with 800, then 1000, 1500, 2000. One pack of eah from the auto store will be enough for one set of wheels. A flexible sanding bock can help on the main dish, but it's not required. All of the edges and lips are done by hand/fingers. A roll of good paper towels is a cheap way to keep thing clean and inspect your work as your sanding. I put the wheel back on the car, and left it off the ground for this step. Found it be the easist way.



I ripped the sand paper into small pieces as to get the most out of it, to avoid and putting scratches where I didn't want them.





Simple back & forth motion with medium pressure. The most important part of this step is to be very thorough and make sure you get everywhere. I used a boring 50 count (back & forth count as 1) as I worked each 5-6" section before moving on with a nice overlap. This is even more important for each finer grit, if you miss spots, the scratches will not be cancelled out by the finer grits and you will have scratches in your finish. It just takes time & and a little patience.

















This is what it should look like after being completely wet sanded with a few grits of paper. Notice that no, I didn't remove 100% of the machine lines on the dish. I wondered if I needed too, but it turns out that I didn't, as they aren't noticeable at all in the finished wheel. This step takes me roughly 2-3 hours.



Here it is after the last grit (2000).



You can tell that the shine is coming, even without any polishing.

[Gtdhw]

Step 3- Cutting/Polishing


This step requires a compound, a rotary buffer, a couple polishing pads, and a couple nice towels.


I used 3M Perfect-It Rubbing compound 06085. I applied the compound with a folded up paper towel, changing as needed.



These wheels are very easy to use a buffer on. I removed the wheel again for this step to keep any compound slinging form getting the car. I worked the wheel in three sections, the dish, then one half of the outer lips at a time. I had the buffer set at the lowest setting of 1000rpm. Lower rpm allows the compound to remain at a lower temp (so it lasts longer to work with), and keep "slinging" to a minimum.




This is after one complete round of buffing, then wiping down clean. The shine is showing, but it gets better. (The black stuff is just pad thad was sacrificed, lol. And the black in the machined holes, pay no mind as it goes away in the next step).




Here it is after a second round of buffing.



After the third and final round of buffing, and wiped clean.





Now it's time for the polishing. I changed the buffer pad and used Mothers Mad Aluminum Polish. I applied it the same way that I applied the compound, and worked it the exact same way (although it takes a lesser amount of polish than it does compound). The polish takes a little longer to work in too, but it's well worth it. The cutting & polishing takes about an our per wheel.



After one round of buffer polishing.



After second and final round of buffer polishing.



On to the last and final step.


Step 4 - Final Cleaning/Polishing/Waxing


I didn't take pics of these last few steps, and I'm not there yet on the last wheel (but I will update with pics when I am in the next couple of days), but they are rather easy and explain themselves. After the final buffing polish, I took the wheel out and power washed it again. The washer will easily blast out the polish that found its way into the machined surfaces in the holes, leaving a nice uniform surface color. I also re-scrubbed the tire itself so that everything is nice, clean, and fresh, then dried completely. It's time for a super light and easy finger polish with the Mothers again (staying away from the machined areas and tire). This only takes 2-3 minutes. The final step is to put a nice coat of wax on to protect the finish.


Wheel completed and back on the car. (This is a good time to update your lug nuts too to give it the completed/finished look)




Supplies list -


Aircraft paint stripper - $10
Brush - $3
Paint stick - $0 Free at any paint store
Roll of Brawny paper towels - $3
Latex type gloves - $5
Sand Paper asst. 800/1000/1500/2000 - $25
Spray bottle of water - $2
3M Rubbing compound - $30
Mothers polish - $5
2 foam polishing pads - $30
Bleech White - $5
2 towels - $5
*Rotary Buffer
*Cheapy power washer


>$130 if you have to buy everything, which most car guys won't have to. Depending on what supplies you already have, you can do you wheels yourself, with decent results for between $0 - $40 per wheel. All you have to do it put forth the time. As far as keeping them looking like this, the wax should protect the shine for a few washes with mild soap & water. Then it will be time for the light finger polish, and that should be all that's required to maintain the appearance. If they do get too bad, it only takes about 20 minutes to remove a wheel, hit with the buffer/polish, then power wash and put back on.

Well there it is guys, that's how this guy did it. I hope it's helps.

[85glht]

Thanks for the very detailed write up. If I ever get ambitious, I will attack this myself.

[cordes]

Thanks. That's pretty much what I thought, but it's nice to see done from start to finish. It's also nice to see how well doing this will pay off. I need to pony up the $10 for that stripper.

[omni_840]

Very nice! Thanks for the write up

[Vigo]

Seems the paint stripper is the make or break. I know how to do everything after that part but i've had very mixed results trying to strip paint from these OEM wheels with different things. At least now i know what brand to look for.