DIY Blade Polishing Article

p27rpy

New Member
9/4/05 - MeltMan was nice enough to host the pics for me, so they're back! Let me know if theres any problems. thanks!

but just in case....

LINK FOR PICS...They are in the order of the article

I'm not sure how, but I am interested in finding out how to make this an article (if that's possible). IIf a mod gets around to reading this, could you please PM me with details? Thanks a whole lot

In my opinion, GSR blades are some of the best wheels that can go onto an Integra, OEM or not. I had wanted a set of blades for my own car for a long time, and I finally found a deal that was worth doing. Upon inspection of the blades, they were in OK shape, with some curb rash, and some fairly deep scratches on a couple of the spokes. Recently, I had read lak8's thread on how he polished his blades, and I was really interested at trying it myself. I didn’t really want the extreme shine that his had (call me crazy) - I wanted it to be shiny, but not mirror-like. However, if you ARE interested in doing that, all you need to do is refer to his tips on polishing with a buffing wheel with various buffing compounds. So anyways, let's get started!

Here is what you will need:

Sandpaper - Grits ranging from 150 to 1500 (I used 150, 220, 320, 400, 800, 1000, and 1500)
Palm Sander
Mother's/Blue Magic Aluminum Polish
Orbital Buffer (I Used the Ryobi 4000 RPM 6" Orbital Buffer)
Various Buffing Pads
Wax (I used Maguiar's Gold Class)
Dish Soap
Paint Stripper
Steel Wool
About 3 hours per wheel

Prep the wheels by generously spraying them with paint remover. NOTE: Make sure to remove the center cap unless you don't want the acura logo anymore...The paint stripper will take the logo right off! Wait about 20 minutes for it to remove the clearcoat on the wheel. It will look something like this:


Take some low grit steel wool, and rub the wheel down, especially in between the spokes where the gray paint is...its tough to remove by hand otherwise. Rinse all of the old clearcoat off when you are done.

Now you are ready to begin the horribly tedious sanding part of the job. If you can think of a more creative way to do this, then definitely do it. I hand sanded the lip and in between the spokes because my palm sander could not get in there enough. I started with 150 grit sandpaper, and rubbed all the spots down until all the gray paint was removed, and took on a "brushed aluminum" look. Here's an example of the look:

Now take a square of 150 grit sandpaper and put it on the palm sander. Begin to sand the wheel, moving in a slow circular pattern. Concentrate on the curb rash and deep scratches. Get them out as much as possible while you are on the low grit sandpaper, as the higher grits will take much longer. Be careful not to leave any scratches from the palm sander - if it jumps it can scratch up the wheel pretty bad. When it looks smooth, move up to the next highest grit and repeat the same process. Here is the official "Oh-my-god-what-the-hell-did-I-just-do-to-my-beautiful-blades" look:

It WILL happen to you, so just get it out of your system now, haha.

When you approach the 600-800 grit range, you should have something that looks like this:

Smooth, but not shiny. This is where we move onto wet sanding. Spray your wheel off and clean it with a clean towel/rag/whatever. Take some dish soap and rub it on the wet wheel so that it is nice and slick. Use the same process, sanding the lip and in between the spokes by hand, then moving onto the palm sander.

Just be a bit softer with the sander now, and try to eliminate all imperfections. Keep wetsanding all the way to 1500 grit, which basically feels like construction paper. With 1500 grit, it should be very very smooth, and sort of shiny. Here's a pic:

There will be some tiny hair-like scratches, but don't worry about those, they will disappear with polishing. Just look for little, loopy scratches made by the palm sander. Those WILL NOT come out with buffing.

Once you are done sanding, its time to move onto polishing. Coat the wheel in aluminum polish:

Start buffing with the rotary buffer. You’re going to want to switch pads every now and then, that way they don’t become too saturated. See the shine coming through?

You can polish to your hearts content really, until you are satisfied with the way it looks. I wiped mine down with a wet paper towel afterwards, and that seemed to help a lot. After you are satisfied with the shine, its time to wax the wheels up to protect them from the elements. Squirt some wax on, and rub it to a nice haze with the buffer.

Give it a little bit to sit, then buff it off with a nice clean cloth.
YOU'RE DONE!
Here are some of my before/after pics:
before:

after:

before:

after:


before:

After!


See this thread for more pics of them on the Integra.

Please PM me if you see anything in here that needs work or adding to. Thanks a lot and I hope this helps a few of yall!
Theo
 
Last edited:

slikk

Money Getter
sticky .. ~~~~~~ stixy ~~~~~~~~~~ sticky

next .. how do you polish hub caps ??!!
 

p27rpy

New Member
are you talking about polishing plastic hubcaps? i dunno bout that. thanks for the comments!
 


SRLNCLT

New Member
Great write up!!!! Just curious, did you only sand the face of the rim or did you go into the rough are, between the spokes?
 


G3GirL

UUUHHHH-OOOOHHHHHHH...!!!
^
p27rpy said:
I hand sanded the lip and in between the spokes because my palm sander could not get in there enough. I started with 150 grit sandpaper, and rubbed all the spots down until all the gray paint was removed, and took on a "brushed aluminum" look.
 

James2388

Son of Disaster
Ah....great post man...I have a set on my 92 LS and they could definately use a little care...not much curb rash on mine, but mine have some questionable spots...Doing this could also raise the price of the rims if you were ever to sell them considering they almost look new...they look great!
I have never heard them called GSR blades, i thought they came on the Preludes????
Around my area people call them twisties! :D
Whos knows, i guess they are called different things in different areas????
 

SRLNCLT

New Member
Suggestion for ya. I bought a wire wheel/brush attachment you put on a drill and it is way easier then hand sanding. And it is smoother then 320 grit sand paper. Its made by Black and Decker and get the Fine one. It was $4. Good luck!! You'll love the finished product!
 
Last edited:

sonicvybe

new driver
ok im gonna attempt to find some different grit sandpaper around the house and make do with what i have currently...
 

sonicvybe

new driver
I just started doing mine...and lemme tell you its gonna take hella long time to get all 4 done. I'll post pics up over this or next weekend and share the results. :D
 

sonicvybe

new driver
I just started doing mine...and lemme tell you its gonna take hella long time to get all 4 done. I'll post pics up over this or next weekend and share the results. :D
ok i did 1 wheel as follows...

1. 200 grit wet sand (forgot to use paint stripper which would have made life easier)
2. very fine steel wool + kitchen top stainless steel cleaner / polish

pics after :) very happy that the scratches are gone...i can apply any desired finish to it now... was hoping to do a stainless steel face with a red lip...but we'll see...

before



after




and a little bit of sanding inside cause it was seriously dirty before...
 
Last edited:
Top