Mag Pollishing

[MNC]

Disclaimer: I have never done this before and the below is just a record of what I tried - not necessarily the best or even a good method of mag polishing - you be the judge.

Have recently purchased a set of very 2nd hand Mickey Thompson 15" x 10" mags.

Two of the mags were in OK condition but needed a good clean up and two were heavily pitted:



After talking to a couple of people I gave the best 2 a hand polish with a soft cloth and a metal polish product 'Autosol' from Repco. The Autosol was about $17 for a toothpaste size tube which would be the right amount for 4 mags.

After spending ages hand polishing the first 2 mags decided to get a quote to have the second two done by a pro. Quote was $100 a rim which is not much less than I paid for the rims so looked for another option.

Had been told by a mate (who had tried) that the little rotary tools like the Dremmel took way to long and you might as well just hand polish vs use one of these. So I bought the below steel wool bit from Mitre 10 store:



I used the drill with Jiff as it is much cheaper than Autosol. Some may think that steel wool was a bit of overkill but I spent about 40 mins with the drill and steel wool bit to get to the below stage. :



Then I plan to hand polish with the Autosol to (Hopefully) get to the same stage as the first 2 hand polished Mags:



Plan is to then get a lambs wool bit and give them a final polish - I wont be too fussy as they are not going on a showroom truck but think its worth the effort over where they were initially.

Would be interested to hear from anyone else thats had a go at this. Cheers,

[skid]

have poilshed a few mags thru work over the last 10 years and find autosol to be the best polish.

we used a drill bit thingy like you did or get a polishing tool that is about the same dimensions as a 9" grinder.

also find that if you get them either bead/sand blasted or acid dipped first it makes a shite load easier.

thats all I can offer dude

SKID

[tgaguy1]

I have used a 3M clean and strip wheel in the past. They are a plastic wheel so you don't get dis-similar metal corrosion if you do not get all the debris out of the alloy of the wheel. I have used them on the heavily corroded belly skins on aircraft as well. They work very well. A polish with scotchbrite and some for of lubricant (CRC, WD-40) brings the wheels up pretty good after the clean and strip wheel and then autosol to finish.

Again, like you not necessarily the best or correct way of doing it but the way I found worked best for me.

[rokhound]

Used to be forever polishing alloys (live by the sea), I agree that Autosol is the sh*t.
To get mine started I used to use 600 grit wet and dry with Brasso as the lubricant, then kept going with progressively finer sandpaper until it was time to finish with the Autosol.
If doing it manually ,there is no quick way, but the results are worth it.

[nstg8a]

yep, autosol is the shit, no doubt about it, iv polished up heaps of mags using it. its also good at getting a lot of scrape marks off paint, it made my old surf look almost tidy for a while.

if you want a real mint finish then do it as you are now, and when you have done the best you can with the drill go over them again with real fine wet n dry sand paper, if the mags are in reasonable state i usually start at about 1000-1200 grit and work through the finer sand papers. can get nearly a mirror finish that way.

getting a pro to do it at $100 a rim isnt a bad price imo, when you consider how much time you will spend doing it yourself. esp if theyre unusual or expensive rims.

i would certainly go that way if i was in a bit of a rush, but you cant beat the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

those rims look like a damn good score....

[Heath]

I was going to say "$100 bucks each for bead locked rims, Nice find." but then I saw the rim in parts, still a nice rim though, be lighter than the steel alternative I bet.

[MNC]

I was going to say "$100 bucks each for bead locked rims, Nice find." but then I saw the rim in parts, still a nice rim though, be lighter than the steel alternative I bet.

Cheers guys,

Yeah - must admit that I thought they were beadlock rims as well when I saw them on the web but there weren`t enough bolts to be warrantable (guy stated he had no problems getting a warrant with them) which is what tipped me off to have a look. Even though the rings are just for looks I'm stoked with the mags, before I saw these I had considered getting some in from the States so this is worth the effort.

[turoa]

where abouts did you find em? ive been looking for a set for awhile. They look like they came up nice

[niblik]

mint.. need to do some rims so this was great info! cheers mnc..

[MNC]

where abouts did you find em? ive been looking for a set for awhile. They look like they came up nice

Found them on Trademe. I'd been looking for a long time and now I'm looking for more rubber (its an illness, I cant stop buying tyres).

[MNC]

mint.. need to do some rims so this was great info! cheers mnc..

You are most welcome. Feels good to put up some tech 4x4 stuff.