I have .190 polished aluminum wheels and was wondering if I could sand them down woking my way down to a really fine grit paper. Will it cause any damage or do more bad than good? The wheels are really dirty now and have spots of dirt stuck to them that take forever to polish off. I thought sanding would be easier than polishing, but don't know if it will leave lines or scratches. I don't know if this is a dumb question or not, please let me know.

 

How bad are these? Just wash them with soap and water, then get some Mothers aluminum polish, 3M also makes a great polish too.

 

They aren't really that bad. I kept them clean, except for the winter months when washing it is harder. They just have spots of dirt on them that I have to rub really hard on for a while.

 

Are you using the Mother's polish? Great stuff.

 

I agree, mother makes a GREAT product. You can also get a buffing wheel for a drill which will make a BIG difference and make scrubbing a lot easier. Sanding is a LOT of work. It will leave scratches, even if you wet sand. When you finish, you will have to use a buffing wheel to repolish it then finish with mothers. I wet sanded the custom skid plates that I made for my scram and polished them with the drill mounted buffing wheel and finished with mothers. I did the same with the NOS tanks on my dad's bike. You can see these in my pictures. On the skid, I think I went domn to 1400 grit. You can also get a buffing kit for a dremmel for the detailed areas. Get a good high speed polishing compound and finish with mothers. Also check out Zoops. They make a sealant that protects all your polished aluminum, stainless steel and chrome parts from oxidation and eliminates the need for repeat polishing.

 

Step up and get a real buffer like the pro's.

For about $69, Harbor Freight tools (harborfreightdotcom) has an extended shaft bench top buffer that turns a 7 or 8" full buffing wheel.



Use the brown Tripoli, white, and green polishing rouge, and you can buff away those scratches and stains with alot less work than a hand drill!!!!!!!!!

I have mine mounted on a free standing stand, and it works out great for exhaust pipes.

 

A buffing wheel and Rouge are the way to go, they make it so much easier and less time consuming. You wouldn't believe the scratches I've taken out with Rouge and buffer. Myn is just a 6" wheel that I have mounted on a 1/2hp electric motor, a Bench Grinder works great to.
For now I'd use some #6 Very Fine steel wool and Blue Magic. Mothers works OK but it seems to quit working as it heats up. I have tested a lot of metal polishing products and so far my favorite has been Blue Magic and Mr Metal. Mothers works great for a clean up job but it doesn't "cut" like the others.
Sandpaper won't do anything but scratch the surface, it is for smoothing surfaces not polishing them.

 

Clean them with 409 first. Works great to remove the stains, grime, etc., but leaves a dull look. then use mothers to polish.

 

mothers is great stuff...hands down

 

I've been using mothers by hand and it was just too much work. I took the DG bumper off and polished it, then did one wheel and never got out to do the rest.