Polishing rims?

[hurricane_r]

iv seen sevral bikes for sale stating there rims are polished* and there like a silver shiny kind of look,

is it posible to take standard goldish colored rims *cbr250r* and get them polished?

if yes, does anyone know where to get this done...

anyhelp appreciated.

[festus]

Your'e local electroplaters should do it. About $100-150 a wheel. Brother had his polished, hard work to keep them nice and shiny.
I got mine chromed :Punk: . Just clean with warm soapy water and you're done.

[COP_B8]

Or Autosol and a hell of a lot of elbow grease, however every time you leave the bike outside overnight or ride in the wet youl be repolishing them :(

[DEATH_INC.]

We can polish 'em, but yep it's expensive, I'd say more like $200 a wheel.
Chroming is the shit if you want shiny, but it adds weight and is even more expensive......but worth it when it come to cleaning time :yes:

[RC1]

try auckland electroplaters out west down hepburn rd, off waikemete hill

[S&S]

I was told by two companies that my rims can't be electroplated, the only option is polishing.... If that's the case I'm going to look around more for a company that will chrome them :yeah:

[S&S]

[QUOTE=RCTL;910528]try auckland electroplaters out west down hepburn rd, off waikemete hill[/QUOTES]

Sweet....Will phone them today

[toymachine]

If you're willing to wait you can get rims powder coated really cheap (say $20ish), though you have to wait till a company has sorted everthing for that colour, they just chuck yours in too.

[Roj]

I was told by two companies that my rims can't be electroplated, the only option is polishing.... If that's the case I'm going to look around more for a company that will chrome them :yeah:


Unfortunately it is unlikely that you will be able to get them chromed because this is normally done by electroplating, it is likley that you have alloy rims which could only be polished

[S&S]

Unfortunately it is unlikely that you will be able to get them chromed because this is normally done by electroplating, it is likley that you have alloy rims which could only be polished

Your right, I just phoned Auckland Electroplaters & another company in New Lynn, they both said they can't be done, only the old style wheel with spokes can be chromed. The only option is polishing :(

[V Twin Raver]

Use paint stripper, then Autosol. I did my own on my old VTR. Looked a treat but was a bit of work as I only wanted to do the outer rim so masking was required and was hard to keep paint stripper off paint I wanted to retain on rim.

[hurricane_r]

ok thanks guys, il look into it

[Clivoris]

If you're willing to wait you can get rims powder coated really cheap (say $20ish), though you have to wait till a company has sorted everthing for that colour, they just chuck yours in too.

Can any alloy rims be powdercoated?

[rufusdion]

Got my Gold wheels polished at "Cambridge Wheel and Frame" here in the Waikato. $150 a wheel and they came up awesome!! Cleaned them with "autosol" once in like 6 months - they dont discolour or anything like that easily.And i done a few km in that time and a few washes. These were standard GSX 250 gold wheels before-hand!

[NighthawkNZ]

I bought the VTR with fully polished rims...


but the are a bit of work to keep shiney... especially since I got a a scott oiler which splatters oil

[slowpoke]

Check out any "septic tank" website for chromed out every-bloody-thing alloy. Must be some "speshul" process if the average electroplaters can't do it though.

If you are gonna get your rims polished and ride in all weathers/road conditions get the rims clear coated afterwards to alleviate the RSI.

There is also a two-pack metallised paint product out now that looks extremely similar to polished alloy without the maintenance headache, but it is exxy.

[Disco Dan]

You want help to clean your rim? :shutup:

[festus]

Gisborne Electroplaters chrome alloy rims, they did mine..........

[vifferman]

I stripped the wheels on the VFR750 I used to have. It had white painted rims that were chipped and scratched, and hard to keep clean, so I bought a tin of paint stripper from Mitre 10, took the wheels and brake rotors off, and set to with an old paintbrush and a hardwood scraper. Took me most of a day to do. I then polished the machined bits with Autosol, and was done.
The VFR has sand-cast wheels with machined rims and hubs, so these were the only shiny bits, with the spokes being matte finish when stripped.

Everyone said that stripped/polished wheels were a lot of work, but to be honest, I found the maintenance easier. Paint/powdercoat seems to attract road spooge, brake dust and grime, whereas the stripped wheels seemed to only require a quick wash once a month or so, and then a maintenance polish every few months. Also, the aforementioned oad spooge, brake dust and grime didn't show up as much.

I'd do it again, and in fact intend to, if my rims (silver paint or powdercoat) get any more chipped/scratched. This time though I'm thinking about taking the time to polish all the sandcast bits.

Other options are painting with a metallic paint, powdercoating, stripping/polishing and Nicasil coating.

If you can afford it, there are specialist mag wheel places that will do all sorts of stuff like this.