Just take them to a truck stop and have someone do the work for you.

Personally, I would not clearcoat the wheels. Once the coating cracks, there is the chance for water to become trapped and really corrode the aluminum.

I have hand polished my vintage Airstream. Mothers does a good job.

 

Just apply polish and rub....marks from wet sanding disappear easily. no compound needed, IMO. A buffing wheel is obviously easier but is usually more trouble than it's worth on rims with wheels on them...unless you can find a small pad.

RJ

 

Well, after about 2 or 3 hours, I got my first rim complete and I'll have to say it looks 100x better. Some of the spots didn't come off but I'm thinking they are from road tar cause when I was in oklahoma this past christmas I drove on a road that was getting re-tarred. The center caps will be done tomorrow (forgot the steel wool while I was at lowe's). Thanks for the help yall. Now hopefully I'll get the other one done tomorrow and then I can install my injectors on monday if they come in.

 

I saw you mention red and white. In the rouge, green is a heavy cut (remove high grit sanding marks) and pink/red is usually used to get the marks out from that. White is more of a buffing compound to shine/clean already scatchless surfaces.

EDIT: Green for stainless, brown for soft metals....sorry


I do ALOT of aluminum and stainless polishing at work. Usually from mill finish material bringing it to high polish. Lots o work.

A good place to see what's available and to get some info is Caswell Plating
Caswell - How To Buff and Polish

The trick with sanding is once you sand with one grit, take a piece of that grit paper and sand in a back and forth motion. If you still see heavier grit marks, they will usually not come out with the lighter stuff. At each step you should not see scratches from the previous grit.

Just as a side note for other projects:
On mill finish (raw material with heavy defects) I start at 80 on stainless and 120 on aluminum using a DA. I lock the DA to remove the real heavy stuff using light pressure which is really cutting the material down. Then orbit with the same grit. Then I orbit 180/220/320. From 320 I can buff with green and get a good finish. Follow it up with pink/red.

For the tar and general cleaning I always use Castrol super clean. You can water it down and it works as good as full strength. I have a sprayer I keep filled with that and it will remove all the brake/road grime and make the tires clean as new with a soft bristle brush.

Den