I have 17 silver alloys rims and was wondering how I can give them a polished lip. Has anyone done this? If so what steps did you take to do it

if your wheels are aluminum then just sand off the paint and then use different grades of sand paper to remove scratches and keep workin it until it smooth then polish it out with some polishing compond then clear coat it to keep it shiny. Its a lotta work, but can be done.

By hand? Yeah, get lotsa different grade sand paper pull your rims off and within like 298,734,340,974 hrs you'll have a nice polished lip.

what about a dremel with a polishing tip? Would it work on my gsx rims?

sig

Yeah but gsx rims already have a polished lip on them. Would using a I wire weel on a drill or a certain bit on a dremel work faster?

Originally posted by eclipseman1999
Yeah but gsx rims already have a polished lip on them. Would using a I wire weel on a drill or a certain bit on a dremel work faster?

Those aren't GSX rims and they don't have polished lips on them.

the lips are silver but not polished

NO WIRE WHEEL! Do not use a wire wheel on your rims, or anything you are going to look at for that matter. A wire wheel is an excellent paint remover for things like cast pieces and stuff, becuase along with speedy paint removal, you get speedy metal removale.

I was just telling the guy posting about powdercoating about this, I had an old valve cover lieing around and couldn't get the paint off of it so i used a wire wheel. As i went on polishing it, i realized what the wheel did. It tour the cover up so bad I can't even get it polished. I got a flap wheel and tried to sand it down, but still have some minor imprefections from the wheel.

If you really want to polish your lip then I would recommend a flapper wheel in a dremel and a lot of paitence. Take your time because if you mess up you screw up your rims.

lol yea dont use a wire wheel...try this

Get some 600, 800, 1000, 1200 grit paper, sand in each grit till even and previous scratches are out. meaning when you move on to 1000 dont stop sanding till all the 600 marks are gone. once you get the 1200 looking good the the dremal out with the white wheel and work with either mothers alum polish or get polishing blocks from sears hardware. They have a real nice pulishing kit that has all the abrasive levels from grey to white. cheap too.

I did some accents on my 2100 HCCA orion amp and it worked real nice. time consuming but in front of a movie its a nice project during winter.

Terry

96 Eagle talon ESI
Star Stage II - Boost/oil/EGT gauges

97 Eclipse
Greddy header - Apexi N1 3" exhaust - SFMU/return line - Apexi SAFC - Stage 2 6 puck Sprung hub MIBA clutch - Shortened shifter - Koni Yellows w/eibach prokit - Stillen Fr/Rr swaybars - ceramic intake - DEI Keyless entry alarm - Niche 17" Shoks

Waiting to be installed: HKS EVC IV, 450 Turbo injectors, GSX Front brakes (need rotors)

Mitchell on Demand copies available

oops i meant once you move on to 1000 dont stop till all the 800 scratches are sanded out.

Terry

96 Eagle talon ESI
Star Stage II - Boost/oil/EGT gauges

97 Eclipse
Greddy header - Apexi N1 3" exhaust - SFMU/return line - Apexi SAFC - Stage 2 6 puck Sprung hub MIBA clutch - Shortened shifter - Koni Yellows w/eibach prokit - Stillen Fr/Rr swaybars - ceramic intake - DEI Keyless entry alarm - Niche 17" Shoks

Waiting to be installed: HKS EVC IV, 450 Turbo injectors, GSX Front brakes (need rotors)

Mitchell on Demand copies available