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| BuckNekkid | Has anyone here ever tried to strip and polish a set of the painted wheels? If I understand correctly, they're cast aluminum (unlike the chrome wheels, which are something other than aluminum). Will cast aluminum polish? I apologize in advance if that's a dopey question. I realized as I typed this I don't know much about aluminum (cast vs. forged vs. billet etc...)  |
| RPL | Painted wheels are the same as the chrome wheels with paint instead of chrome. They can be stripped and polished, a huge task. They may have some porosity and require constant polishing, unless you Zoop's them. Much easier to find a set of chrome ones. |
| WE PROWL | For those with painted wheels, I just came upon this company, Caswell http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/alwheel.htm that has an aluminum wheel finishing and polishing kit. I have not tried it, but, it looks like the kit contains everything needed to make the process as painless as possible. Does anyone have anything good or bad to say about these guys or is there a better do-it-yourself kit out there?
Mike |
| Ray | Buck ... see discussions under Jim's thread on '99 Painted Wheels for more info.  |
| catfish | if you polish,w/o zoops you will be polishing forever. This message has been edited by jan bruggeman on 10-19-2004 at 08:38 PM |
| Kraut | I used Caswell's polishing and plating system to do my '65 Triumph Bonneville. http://www.caswellplating.com/restgal/mueller.htm
Their plating system was OK, but did not quite give the same results as professional plating. As for the polishing stuff, it worked well. You can also get polishing equipment and supplies at the following:
Eastwood: http://www.eastwoodcompany.com/jump.jsp?itemType=CATEGORY&itemID=432
Grainger: http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/searchresults.jsp
Harbor Freight: http://order.harborfreight.com/EasyAsk/harborfreight/results.jsp?ts=Wed%20Oct%2020%2005:11:48%20PDT%202004
J & L Industrial: http://www.jlindustrial.com/search/searchresults2.jsp;jsessionid=3ZVGZN0FSQD5ZLAUBIWCFEVMCQFC0IV0?_requestid=93557 It can be done, but it takes a lot of practice to get it right. This is not to mention that it's a dirty job and very hard work. 
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| CJ | Kraut.........that looks like a LOT of work!  |
| Kraut | CJ, It took 14 months, working on it an average of 3 hours per weekday and 8 hours every weekend day. I did it while I was still working for a living, but I will never do anything like it again. I still have the bike, and it is my pride and joy.
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| Jim C | RPL is absolutely correct in every thing he said, a lot of work and yes since these wheels are a casting the porosity is definitely there. Oh! another thing the wall thickness of the rim it's self is already extremely thin to begin with and each time you go to polish these you will be removing material that will, "not my be" weaken the wheel to the extent of jeopardizing not only your kats life, but You and who ever is riding with you and who ever you run into when the wheel disintegrates... http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/Volvo_Books/susp3.html This message has been edited by Jim C on 10-20-2004 at 01:05 PM |
| BuckNekkid | I love this place I haven't made any kind of decision yet - just looking down the road a bit as I start to do some of the mods I'm planning. Obviously it would be easier to go to chrome, but polished wheels have a different "look" than chrome that I'm thinking would be more in line with what I'm doing if I decide I'm not completely happy with the way the painted wheels look. Thank you very much to all of you for your detailed responses. In fact, I gleaned some valuable information from this thread for another purpose - I have a radical custom chopper that has tons of polished billet and the Zoops sounds like something I definitely need to look. Sounds like a much better idea than buying a 55 gallon drum of Mother's billet polish 
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| CJ | That's amazing Kraut........no wonder you needed back surgery..........by the way......hope all went well with that??  |
| SirReal | Very nice Kraut! Is that a Bonneville? |
| Kraut | CJ, That bike had nothing to do with my back problem, and I'm feelin great. It's been just over 2 weeks since my surgery, and I already feel like it never happened. SirReal, Yes, it is a 1965 Triumph Bonneville. 
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| CJ | I was kidding about the bike being your back problem, but regardless, it certainly was a lot of work. Glad to hear you are doing so well after the surgery. |
| c.mangeng | I have seen one painted set of wheels, polished. It has a slightly duller look than the chrome. I'm sure it was a lot of work, based on everyones responses that have done that kind of work. The Katt I saw with it, was purchased that way, so I can't advise you based on input from the owner. He is one of our Canadian friends in BC. |
| Ray | Pictures of my polished wheels posted under other thread on Painted 99 Wheels .. CJ posted them for me ... take a peek. |
