Polishing rims?

[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?

[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.