The beauty - and thus the value - of a beautifully shiny and scratch-free car can be spoiled if rim polishing is left out of the equation. A dirty, damaged rim can cause considerable aesthetic damage. But with regular polishing, you can even increase the value of your car. How? We'll tell you.
The first step in rim polishing is a thorough wash
As stated in the car polishing the first step is also the washing, and the rim polishing starts with it. The rim is one of the parts of the car that can get dirty very quickly and terribly.
Therefore, in order to accurately assess its condition, it is essential to extremely thorough washing is required, including removal of oil stains. This requires dismantling, otherwise it is not possible to access all the small slots. Then it is time for a thorough cleaning with the appropriate tools and cleaning agents.
Grinding is the time-consuming stage of rim polishing
This is something we do not recommend that impatient and/or time-poor car owners do themselves. And it doesn't matter what you use to do the sanding, because the right choice of tools results in perfect, error-free and faster work.
Thorough sanding is essential for rim polishing, but there are rims that will challenge anyone. The more complex the pattern, the harder it will be, as there are many small gaps to be found. In addition, the strength of the sanding is important, as it must be perfect, but it must not damage or deform the rim pattern.
It's worth knowing that a special 2 mm thick primer is applied during the manufacturing process. The paint is then applied on top of this, followed by the varnish. A paint stripping fluid can be used to remove the varnish and paint, but it is important to ensure that protective clothing is worn.
Sanding is done first with a coarser, then with a progressively finer grit. Machine grinding on rims does not give 100% results, as it is impossible to trace even fine grooves and curves. To prevent any remaining waves from being visible in the light, you can make the surface perfectly smooth by using water paper.
The penultimate step in rim polishing is the application of polishing paste
Next, a textile or felt polishing head can be used to apply the polishing paste. Working from the inside out, the paste should be applied horizontally and vertically.
It is important to note here that always have enough paste on the disc to avoid scratches, and wasting much of his work.
The rim is polished at least twice to give it back its factory shine. It will then be so shiny that it will deserve the name mirror polish.
The final stage of rim polishing is to prevent premature tarnishing
No one wants their time-consuming work to go to waste. That's why the final step in rim polishing is you should apply a special rim coating to the result of your work. This works in a similar way to the car polishing with wax.
Rim polishing may not be perfect at home
Polishing a rim can take up to 6-8 hours per piece, and the type and quality of the tools and agents used are very different. In addition, thoroughness, practice and precision are very important, because the sunlight on the rim will show up any flaws.
How often should the rim be polished?
When the rim is polished in-house, in most cases, matting will begin after 3-6 months. Although it's easier to help at this stage, it's after the winter season, a thorough polishing by skilled hands may be necessary.
Just as polishing a car is not perfect without polishing the rim, the reverse is also true
No matter how shiny the rim, if your car is scratched and has lost its shine, it may even be dirty inside. A thorough interior car cosmetics, a nanotechnology car protection and a headlight polishing but it can work wonders. So you can make every inch of your car look as if it's just stepped out of the showroom.