Polishing Alloy Wheels Stuff to Buy: 240 grit wet/dry paper 320 grit wet/dry paper 400 grit wet/dry paper 800 grit wet/dry paper 1000 grit wet/dry paper 0000 Steel Wool 1 Can of Eagle1 Aluminum polish 1 Can of Mothers Aluminum polish 1 Stick of Jewelers Rouge 1 Spiral sewn buffing wheel 1 Double sewn buffing wheel 2 Single sewn buffing wheel 2 Quarts of Aircraft Stripper 2 Chemical proof paint brushes Base Coat of your choise Clearcoat of your choise These are the steps I took in restoring my GT wheels. I had all the tires removed from the rims. This is a small step to take for a good job. This will step you through 1 rim. As with most things, the longer you prep, the better results. WARNING! The stripper used to complete this job is very dangerous and is known to cause cancer. Use chemical gloves, goggles, and a chemical apron at ALL TIMES! DO NOT take these items off as long as the stripper is present especially when hosing the wheels off. Step 1) Clean rim completly and allow to dry. Some chemicals like Armor-All may react with the stripper and will not allow the stripper to work completely. Step 2) Place rim on cardboard and begin to apply stripper to the rim with a chemical proof paint brush. Step 3) Saturate the rim with stripper. Allow stripper to soak for a GOOD 15 to 20 minutes. Take the rim outside and hose it off. Watch where the run-off goes because the stripper is extremely dangerous! You may want to check with local laws about the use of this stuff. Step 4) After you hose the rim off you will notice that not all of the paint will be removed. Use your paint brush and apply more stripper in those areas. Again, wait about 15 minutes. Use a pop-cicle stick to scrape the paint loose. Hose the rim off again. Step 5) You may have to apply repete Step 4 if more paint remains. One quart of stripper should be able to do 2 rims. Step 6) After all the clearcoat and paint is gone, wash the rim with soapy water. This will ensure all the stripper is gone. Allow the rim to dry. Step 7) Now, the sanding process begins. Use a fine file to remove any major nicks. If you have any imperfections in the rim, now is the time to get rid of them. WARNING if you see the rim is cracked, count your blessings and THROW IT AWAY! You do not want to risk it. Step 8) Once the major nicks are filed out, start with the 240 grit paper. Fill a small bucket with water and use this to clean your paper. Also, fill a clean spray bottle with water. You will use the spray bottle as your main source of water. If you use your bucket each time, when you get to the 1000 grit you will be picking up sand from the 240 paper and this will leave streaks. Therefore, only use the bucket to clean the coarse paper (240-320) and use the spray bottle from there after. Step 9) If you really hate sanding and you can afford it, I would strongly recommend buying a Dremel Contour Sander. NOT THE ROTERY TOOL. The Contour Sander is a small detail sander that is supplied with different shaped tools that can be modified. You can wrap any flavor of sandpaper on the different tooling. They are about $70US. This will speed up the process a bit but there is still plenty of hand sandind involved. Step 10)After all the machine lines are COMPLETLY gone, move on to the 320. If there are machine lines visable, it will never shine like a mirror. It will shine good but not like it could. Step 11)Continue to move from 320 to 400 to 800 and then 1000. The area to be polished should now be extremely smooth and uniformaly satin in color. Use the 0000 steel wool and Eagle1 polish in conjunction to smooth the surface out even more. Step 12)Load your electric drill or air die grinder with the tight spiral sewn buffing wheel. You may want to put duct tape on the lace portion of the wheel to keep from hitting it with the buffing wheel. Step 13)Put a thin layer of Eagle1 polishing compound on the portion to be polished. With your buffer, begin buffing the wheel. Buff all areas to be polished. By now the wheel should start to shine. Step 14)Change to the double sewn buffing wheel and continue with the Eagle1 buffing compound. Step 15)Change to the single sewn loose buffing wheel. Clean all the Eagle1 compound off with a clean towel. Apply a thin layer of Mothers compound and buff. Step 16)By now, the wheel should really start to shine. To make it really shine, get a NEW single sewn loose buffing wheel and a stick of jewelers rouge. Clean all the Mothers compound off with a clean towel. Apply the rouge directly to the buffing wheel and begin to polish. This should only be done with a clean buffing wheel. It will not work with the same buffing wheel used with the Eagle1 or the Mothers. Continue to polish till you can count the pores on your nose. Good Luck! Step 17)The polishing should be done and now you are ready for paint. Clean the wheel with a gentle but wax stripping soap. You must get all the wax off the rim before even thinking about painting. Step 18)After scrubbing all the wax off, let the wheel dry. Mask off all the polished areas and apply the desired base coat. Step 19)Because of the ultra smooth surface, I choose not to clearcoat the polished area. The clearcoat may not adhear to the smooth surface. Step 20)Clearcoat the base coat and allow to set for a week. The clearcoat I used required a baking process for 4 hours at 140 degs F. I baked the wheels under 500 Watt quartz lamps for 12 hours. Step 21)After you are ready to remount your wheels, use your Dremel rotory tool to remove all the paint on the surface where the lug nuts mount. If this were not done, your lug nut torque readings will be incorrect and may cause your nice "new" wheels to fly off on the highay. Good luck with your polishing and remember, the longer you prep the better the results. I have only tried this on 15" Fiero GT wheels. I would like to one day try this on other Fiero wheels but for now I am polished out. The entire process took me about 4 weeks. I am sure it could be done in a lot less time. Written and proven by Brian K Heston Fiero List Member since Aug 1996 bheston@sota-oh.com