***UPDATE***
Few lessons are as good as self-taught experimentation. The way I figured it was, if it doesn’t turn out, I can just powder coat these puppy’s a cool charcoal color.
Well I gathered as much courage as I could, and a sheet of 220 sandpaper!
Below are some random gleanings from my experience:
Turns out, you have to get worse before you can get better. That oblong dark spot in the center is polished more than the surrounding material. What you have to do is LIGHTLY scuff the whole area to a similar finish. REMEMBER, What you do at this point, you will have to buff back to a consistent sheen, so if you go nuts with too heavy of a grit paper, you will cuss yourself later! The key is to scratch, but not gouge! You own what you do at this point! Another thing I found is that your sanding direction is also important. Although I haven’t totally figured out the answer to it, I will tell you that I am having considerable trouble blending the finish right where the spoke meets the edge of the wheel.
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Anyway, as you lightly sand, I I had to make a conscious effort to NOT swirl with the 220. Once i got a uniform sanded texture, I switched to 500grit, then 1200grit. Finally, my Harley buddy gave me some stuff called “polishing paper”. It’s probably 1500/2000grit. Another thing I did that may or may not have helped, was to sand with polishing compound. My friend,
@Carolina_'99Hoe
recommended White Diamond. It’s like $15/bottle, but it seems to be effective. After the polishing paper, I buffed with one of those cotton buffing attachments that goes on your drill. They were like $11 on Amazon. I had tried one of those Mothers polishing balls. Not only is it expensive, $29, but I don’t think it was abrasive enough for this step. I’m not saying it doesn’t work, I just think I needed more cutting power than the foam could deliver. Then buff with a microfiber cloth. The White Diamond instructions say that it turns black as you polish, this it very true, you need to have plenty of microfiber cloths. I used old rags and stuff but some shop cloths aren’t meant to shine aluminum. Get microfiber. The last thing I would recommend is DONT GET IN A HURRY! If you feel like you’re going agonizingly slow, you’re probably still going too fast! At any step in the process! There are still some lingering heavy scratches that are going to take more elbow grease. Like this one.
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It was cloudy today, but I could probably get by with them as is.
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