I am getting a little tired of the factory rough look and the scratches from unwanted offraod winter driving and want to know if I can sand down my rims to be smooth and shiny? They dont need to look chromy but I saw a friends 4g63 intake manifold that he sanded down to a nice polish and was wondering if our rims could be polished in the same way using sand paper and a lot of hard hand sanding or if I would need some kind of powered sander or whatever it takes? TIA
Brent

you could probably do it....the main question i see everyone asking is why polish stock 14" rims. most will say go and buy a set of cheap rims rather than waste all that time. it would take a while...no doubt but if you really wanted to do it im sure you could.

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2011 Nissan Xterra Pro-4x

2007 Kawasaki Ninja 650R

1996 Mitsubishi Eclipse RS-NX 75 shot, AEM CAI, P&P t/b and intake mani-SOLD

1964 Buick Electra 225-all original, all power options, 325hp, 445ft/lbs tq

Yeah its true cheap rims could work, but I cant afford cheap rims and the tires for them so thats not even an option right now. This is a daily driver that I want to touch up and get peak stock performance from, saving money for racing school and paying off some college debts eats into the bank account. Later down the road when I get a more steady income Ill be doing shit to the car. So really all Im looking for is people to tell the how and not ask the why. thanks for the kinda answer though.
Brent

Well I polished my rims on my SHO and they turned out really good. Took forever though. They were painted to the first step was to strip the paint off either be sand blasting or chemical. Then start wet sanding. Start with 220 or so depending on your current scratches. Might have to go lower. Then work all the way up to 1500 step by step. At 1500 it will start to look really nice. Then get a polishing wheel to put on a drill and 3 different rouges starting with the roughest and finishing with the jewelers rouge. One you are done polishing with that then hand polish with like mother's mag aluminum polish and you are done. You will want to throw a couple coats of wax on em to protect them as well. Just so you know each wheel took me about 10 hours of work. Especially the hand wet sanding.

Chad

MODS:
3" PVC CAI, GST Muffler, Greddy 4-1 Header, AFX UDP, 55 mm bored TB, P&P Intake Manifold, Corbin intake spacer, gutted cat, Apexi S-AFC, KYB AGX Struts, Eibach Prokits, Excel TZ-10 Rims