Polished wheels

[Nubbs]

Anyone know how and where to have stock wheels polished?

[ringadingh]

There is a place near me here in Ontario that refinishes car and truck wheels, Im not sure if they do bike wheels, but I could call and ask if you want.

[borto1990]

yea, these wheels are kinda dull aren't they.. i was even kickin the idea around to getting them chromed over the winter..

[nomad561]

I wonder how powder coating would work ?

[Jared]

If they are aluminum, can't they be polished to an almost chrome like appearance?

[schoeney]

The one thing I do like about the stock wheels is they "hide" the dirt. Especially when you do alot of riding.

Chrome would look nice but I wonder if I would feel compelled to clean them alot more?

[redjay]

You can see so little of the wheels. Is it worth the effort and expense ?

[dogdoc]

Im guessing not redjay. i think aluminum alloy that has been painted or powder coated is stock. yes they do hide dirt better than chrome.

[ringadingh]

Thats one of the things that I like about the 1500's , they come with aluminium wheels.

[radco]

I thought our wheels were coated with clear coat! so to polish that would have to be removed??? Chrome would look sweet,, that is about 550$ US for a pair ... IMO not too bad a deal... and Plastic Chrome or colors about 300$ US.... I hunt down the web addy if anyone is interested.....Rich

[Nubbs]

Im interested in anything but the stock wheels. True they are mostly hidden, but I'm sure the brake rotor could be downsized to reveal more of the wheel.
I saw some nice custom chrome wheels that will work but they were almost $2500.00 USD.
I would be willing to put the cash out if they are going to look good, but dont want to put a few G's into them either

[dougster]

Downsizing the rotor would not be a very good idea, as heavy as these bikes are.

[beezer]

These wheels are powder coated. They are aluminum underneath.

All you need to do is buy a good paint stripper and strip them with a plastic putty knife. After that you rub them with fine sandpaper and you'll have the desired effect. Hope this helps.

[phenrichs]

Yep beezer it is actually a very simple task but is very time consuming to do correctly.

have done it and seen it done on outer fork tubes on several older bikes. You remove whatever coatings are on the item (powder coat, clear coat), then depending on how smooth the surface is choose a sandpaper. I recommend not using anything coarser than 400 but if you are working with a very rough surface you may have to. start with this number paper and work the entire surface until it is even. then step up to a finer grit and repeat. Do this until you get to 1000 grit wet sanding. at this point you must be very careful because the slightest particle can gouge and kill all your work. You will have something that looks very good at this point and you can then buff with a good aluminum or chrome polish. Be sure to clear coat when you finish to protect it.

BEWARE ----- I have seen this take 2 days for 1 fork tube.

[Nubbs]

Thank you all for your advice and help with this. Im thinking this will be one of my winter projects. The list is a long one for this winter. Now if only finance3s will cooperate with the majority of the list! ;)