who has polished rims?

[gregvhen]

Are they a pain to maintain, and how long did it take you to take the original wheel finish off and finally get it shiny?

[Alphamazing]

Aircraft paint stripper on the lips. The taping takes the longest time. Maintenance was nil, just wipe them down with a degreaser occasionally to get the spots off.

[oramac]

+1  Tape off the inner part of the wheel, then use the aforementioned stripper.  However, I liked to polish mine with some 'mothers' to get a nice shine.

I don't have to worry 'bout them any more.  The SV has chrome hoops *bling*

[REAP]

I did this a few months ago and it turned out really nice. I used basic paint stripper from my local hardware store and it took about 3 hours for me (had no clue what i was doing). You have to polish the wheels about once every few days, i went over the wheels with paint stripper again after the 2 month mark just for a touch up. Here's how it looks on crappy phone quality:

[BaltimoreGS]

Never done it to a bike but I polished the slotted mags on my old Camaro once.  Eastwood makes a coating for the bare metal:  http://www.eastwood.com/ew-diamond-clear-gloss-bare-metal-aero-11-oz.html?reltype=2

They also have buffing kits if you want to really shine it up:  http://www.eastwood.com/ew-wheel-buffing-kit.html

Fair warning, buffing out a wheel can be time consuming.

-Jessie

[joshr08]

there is a full write up in the wiki about polishing rims

[gregvhen]

has anyone polished the whole wheel not just the outside?

[joshr08]

not that i have ever seen.  theres alot of stamped writing on the rim that would be to hard to make look nice. 

[gregvhen]

oh, ive seen it done on gixxers and cbr's just wonderin if anyone hear had it like that thanks for the input everyone

[joshr08]

are you sure the gixxer and cbr were polished and not chrome?

[gregvhen]

yea ive read it as polished before, dont know where though

[Bluehaze]

takes a very long time to do.  you must be commited cause its frustrating.  my paint remover didnt do squat.  it was all water and sandpaper by hand.

[jrains89]

came on the bike when i got it and i just took a rag over them quickly, they were dirty as hell in this pic.  easy to maintain if you ask me

[average]

A good rule of thumb after getting a shine to your liking is a nice coat of car wax. Helps the shine last longer. I've used this process many times and also helps to block brake dust/dirt and makes them very easy to clean the next time. Idk; it works for me so....