Ok guys. I've been reading the posts and doing searches here for the past couple hours gaining some very good info about DAs and detailing. I havent really seen anything with regards to wheels so I wanted to get some opinions from people more knowledgable than myself. Here's my situation...

I have an 03 F-150 Supercrew with 2-tone blue/grey and aftermarket wheels. The wheels are polished aluminum with no clear. I live in NH and the wheels have seen 2 winters. Winters up here = MANY snowstorms and LOTS of salt! Needless to say, the wheels need some serious help to have anything resembling a shine to them along with some protection so they will stand up a little better when winter roles around. I know polished aluminum is horrible to keep up and takes a lot of effort. I can't really afford another set of wheels right now but I can certainly afford some tools to get them back to some decent quality. What I'm looking for is respectable and not showroom. Think of worst case scenario with these wheels. They need some cutting and then some polishing for sure since the wheels do have some pitting on them.

I've been reading a bunch on the Meguirs and the PC DAs. I'd really love to pick one of these up to help clean up the paint on both my and my wife's Fords but I need to find out if either of these would also work well to help straighten out the problems with my wheels. Either the G100 or 7424 look like they *might* work well on these guys based on the size of the tool and their pad sizes since the wheels only have small triangle openings that I could easily get with a cone buff on my variable speed roto tool.

My paint issues can easily be cleaned up with either of these tools using one of the kits from ADS, Poorboy's, etc. that I have read up on via searches. My main problem would be the wheels. I guess my questions would be this..

Will either of these tools work in regards to fixing my wheels?
Will the compunds in any of these kits (ADS, Poorboys, etc) do the job or would I also need something like this Eastwood wheel kit.. http://www.eastwoodco.com/shopping/p...iProductID=949 or somethign similar?

I don't mind doing the work so it's pretty much a question of me picking up the proper tools and accessories to get it respectable looking. Any hints, tips, opinions, advice, ridicule, you-smell-funnys, or help would be greatly appreciated.

I now to the experts.

 

I'm not an expert on cleaning up polished aluminum wheels..
But..

The first thing any expert is going to tell you is get some pictures up man, thats the only way they can tell you what to do for sure!

B

 

I'll be trying to get a couple up this afternoon. I was researching late last night and it was poring outside so I couldn't get any to post. lol

 

I have polished wheels on my truck and can help you out.
First off, here's what you are going to need):

• Either a PowerBall Mini (if you have smaller holes, etc. on your wheels) or a regular PowerBall. If you can use the larger size, I suggest buying a 5" wool one from over at ADS (he is out of the smaller 3" ones right now). I still need to get one of those. They last longer and work better than the foam ones.
• Meguiar's Hot Rims Mag & Aluminum Polish
• A pack of terry towels

1. Wash your wheels
2. Dry them
3. Put the polishing ball on a drill, preferably a corded one
4. Put polish all over the top half of it. I just move the ball around in the can of polish.
5. Dab some polish all over the wheel
6. Pull the trigger and have at it.
7. Work it until it is all black. Once it is all black, I make one more pass around the entire wheel.
8. Use your cheap terry towels for removing all of that black residue.
9. Go at it a second round if need be.
10. Use a terry towel and some QD to wipe down the wheels and remove any residue left over.
11. At this point, they should be shining like chrome!

As far as maintaining them, wash only with car soap and water. Use a safe wheel cleaner (Meguiar's Aluminum Wheel Wash) if you have something on there and need a bit more power than soap and water. In the winter, you may just have to let it go? I'm sure the salt doesn't help, but it doesn't take that long to polish them up.

Oh yeah, those terry towels? Only use them on the wheels and wash them separately from anything else. After I polish metal, I soak everything I used in a bucket of Simple Green and water for about a week, changing the water every couple of days. This helps break down all of that polish, etc. that you have built up on everything.

 

Here is what mine looked like before:



And after: