Guide to wheel polishing

[R1stu]

R6stu’s guide to polishing your wheels.


First of all make sure you are not planning on going anywhere for the day as this takes quite a while to complete.

Tools required:

1) Rubber gloves
2) Nitro Morse (paint stripper)
3) Rags (lots)
4) Greenie pads
5) Masking tape (lots)
6) Auto sol
7) A brush





First off all you need to mask the parts of the wheel that you don’t want to strip (usually the centre till the 1st ridge on the rim). See fig 1.

Once you have masked the entire wheel off, apply the rubber gloves to you’re hands to prevent the stripper from burning them.

Take some Nitro Morse and place into a small pot or yes the lid of the container as the tub. Take the brush and liberally spread nitro Morse onto the wheel and around the edge of the rim. Only work on one quarter of the wheel at any time and don’t worry too much about getting over the tyres as it does not work on rubber. (Fig 2)

Leave the paint stripper to work for around 5mins or until the bubbling as stopped and then take the greenie pad and work loose the dead paint. (Fig 3)

Re-apply the paint stripper onto the wheel and leave for a further 10minutes. Once you have done this (making sure that you scrub around the bead of the tyre) take a rag and wipe of the section of the wheel.

Continue till the entire wheel has been completed.

Once you have done both wheels remove the masking tape and apply the auto sol onto the wheel and polish. You may find that a power drill and polish pad will do wonders.

If required use some fine grade wet and dry then auto sol once again.

The end result should look on something like this.
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[chunkielad]

I shall be doing this tomorrow but then I have to spray the middle bit black as mine are white and it will look bad leaving them!!!

Looks good though mate
____________________
Mark Harrison R.I.P - 26th March 2003.
Remember you always and will ride in your honour.
Big revvs up for Mark!

[h00dwink]

sorry to kick up a 3 year old (dead) topic here, but since there's already one i'm not gunna start a new one only to be told to search for this

reet well, my problem's that the paint on my NC23 wheels is starting to flake away on the outside. as such i'v been considering stripping them to the alluminium. but leaving the inside painted.
it's starting to be a bit of an eyesore seeing it gradually break off more and more. also when i'm washing the bike it's not nice seeing wee bits of paint flaking off.

what i want to know is- were i to strip the pain on the rim, how would i "seel" off the point where the paint breaks to alluminium on the leg part?
put some sort of varnish over it or something?

also, do you think it'd look good and be worthwhile doing?
i suppose if it does look shit i can just go with my original idea and just get them powder coated black. this is the cheaper (and possibly cooler) option though.
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[h00dwink]

also, where can you buy nitromors (or equivelant)?
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[Davo]

[The Tot]

Wilkinsons do them for 3 quid for a litre i think.
____________________
The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[R1stu]

IT will take some upkeep unless you seal the wheel after. It took me almost 2hrs with a drill each wheel to get nice and shiny!

but fun to do!
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[h00dwink]

so how do you seal it off? that's what i'm concerned about.
otherwise it'd mean dropping the wheel out later on down the line to do the rest of the insides.
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[R1stu]

Just use masking tape over the areas that you dont want the paint to be removed from! See first pic! then brush on the nitromorse, leave then remove.

after you removed it and got it as shiny as you want, get some gloss lacque to seal the wheels from moisture.

This wll mean however that the wheel wont be as shiny as if polished alone, but it will be less work.
____________________
Carbon closet tart! https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/02r6/
Stolen bike. 2000 R1: https://www.bikepics.com/members/r6stuk/00r1/
Current bike 1991 Honda ST1100 Pan European, 1986 Honda cb350sg (Finished)

[h00dwink]

righto, i think i'm gunna try my hand at this. hopefully next monday, tuesday or wednesday. which ever the weather is good on.
on your R6 the wheels look awesome. did you laquer them after or just stay rigerous with the upkeep?
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[fast_tzr]

Decent guide, you planning on doing the R1 rims?

[Teaman]

heres mine on paint removal

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=62575&highlight=paint
____________________
There is no point in ranting about someone stupid because there is nothing u can do about it. There is no cure for stupid.
Someone stupid does not realise they r stupid.stupidity is indistinguishable from malice U just have to accept that some people are thick as p1gsh1t and work around them.

[Teaman]

I ended up bead blasting them at work eventually as the laquer started to peal off, (the rough pits were pitted due to oxidising,) unfortunately they just kept getting yucky so Ive left them without laquer and will poillish them as soon as they stop gritting
____________________
There is no point in ranting about someone stupid because there is nothing u can do about it. There is no cure for stupid.
Someone stupid does not realise they r stupid.stupidity is indistinguishable from malice U just have to accept that some people are thick as p1gsh1t and work around them.

[h00dwink]

ok, woke up this morning, seeing it not pissing it down so thought today would be the day.
so spent about an hour and a half just getting the bloody odds n sods to have a go at this.
only did the front wheel today as there's not enough light, and i don't think the weather's going to hold out much longer.
annoyingly the weather men now say it's going to be piddling hard with rain tomorrow so the back might be waiting a while. at least it'll give the nitromors a good washing away.

so, here's how it went-
this is why i wanted to do it
https://img409.imageshack.us/img409/1261/dsc02001tv7.jpg

here's the wheel all done up with masking tape (an inexact science) and bubbling away
https://img179.imageshack.us/img179/5981/dsc02002xa9.jpg

the semi-finished product. need to go at it with autosol and then laquer it. it looks better than what i thought it would. but will look better when it's properly buffed up.

https://img440.imageshack.us/img440/4643/dsc02004li4.jpg
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[Misc]

Looking good Hoodwink.

The bit that really puts me off is taking the wheels off, would make me paranoid i didn't do them up tightly enough of something.

[h00dwink]

didn't take it off. if you weren't planning on taking it off anyway, it would be about the same amount of effort to take it off as it would be to just keep leaning the bike n turning the wheel.
although it's going to be much more difficult doing the rear wheel.

that's my justification for not having the money to buy two paddock stands by the way
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[Misc]

I'd probably need to take them off as i would want green spokes with polished rims.

[h00dwink]

update-
got the rear done today. then had my first try with autosol. gotta say the stuff's pretty incredible
unfortunately it was dark when i took the pic, but you can still see the niceness
https://img48.imageshack.us/img48/5904/dsc02015qf0.jpg
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[Misc]

I might give it a go tomorrow, is there a place i can find everything? And what are greenie pads, & will any paint stripper do?

[h00dwink]

my shopping list (and places)-

tesco:
value washing up gloves (nitro mors burns as you'll find out)
value dish cloths. they're like 3 in a pack for 25p X3
green scrubbie cloth (pan scourers). come 3 in a pack, about 30p. X3

this lot should all be together in the same aisle.

halfords:
(not entirely essential) 500ml universal clear laquer £6.29 or 300ml for £5.30

B&Q:
nitro mors £3.95

decent bike shop or halfords:
autosol, about £4

cheapy pound shop:
masking tape*
paint brush*

*can be bought elsewhere but in places like B&Q it was £3 for a roll of masking tape, and £5 for a set of 4 brushes.
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[Misc]

Cheers mate, i'll probably get it tomorrow. Do you have to mask the middle bit (you're 2nd pic) as i want to do a full polished wheel with green spokes, will it be akward?
Did you do the whole rim at once or apply the stripper bit by bit.

[h00dwink]

hmm, well you don't "have" to mask it up. i liked how it looked in r1stu's pic so i pretty much just copied it. i think it looks better like that anyway, kinda highlights it.

i'd say to try it that way first, and then if you don't like it you can always just put masking tape back over the spokes and strip the middle anyway

as to applying the stripper-

once you've got the masking tape sorted, set the wheel up so you know a half and half point. like have the valve cap on the side so it seperates it to an upper and lower half.

only do one side of the wheel at a time aswell, otherwise you run the risk of the stripper drying out.

apply it to one half of the wheel. leave for about 5 minutes. scrape away the shit as best as you can. reapply more stripper. gotta be left for like 15 minutes now.

rotate the wheel so the other half is now able to be cleaned. this way you can get it sorted whilst the other half is having the long blast of stripper.

after both the halves are properly stripped. get a bowl of water and one of the rags. go around that side of the wheel getting off as much of the stripper as possible.
not like a full wash. do that when you're completely finished with it all.
____________________
Sahf East Winnah 4LYF
https://bikepics.com/members/h00dwink/00sv650s/
www.youtube.com/h00dwink updated regularly

[m99dws]

[Misc]

I've done about a quarter of the wheel but it didn't start to bubble, what's the longest to leave it on there before it dries as i probably have diffrent paint to most bikes, Ninja's don't have gloss.

Also, does it matter if you get any on the wheels as the beads seem like a pain?

Masking tape doesn't even stick to my paint lol.

[Cillit-BANG]

If the wheels have previously been powdercoated then Nirtomors won't work.

It also won't work on anodized aluminium.

Belgom Alu is a decent finishing polish to use. It is a lot finer than autosol and provides a waxed protective finish.