I need some advice. My front rim is in perfect cosmetic condition. But, my back rim, on the rotor side has a spot on the inner flat part (not the lip) that is peeling. The peel is about 2 inches long by about 3/4 inch wide. I have used gloss black to touch it up, but it just isn't the same as having a smooth finish. I am considering either repainting the rim or thinking about polishing both of the rims ( not the whole wheel, just the rim part and not the 3 spokes).

I can do the paint work without a problem, but I have never really polished out something. Anyone want to give advice on the types of compounds, jewlers rouge, or tools that will make this job not take forever and have good results?

Thanks.

 

I polished my stock rims last winter. I spent about 80 hours doing it (both rims), but if I had to do it again, I think I could finish the job in under 30 hours. Here's how it goes:

1.Take wheel off from the bike, tyre off from the rim and clean the rim from all oil, chain wax, dirt etc. Take ball-bearings off or protect them well with duct tape.

2.I highly recommend taking the cleaned rim to get it metal-bearing blowed. Don't know the real word, it's the same as sand-blowing, but it's done with small metal particles (almost dust-like) instead of sand. It will rip the paint off and smooth all small scratches. Most industrial painting companies have the equipment to do this, and it will take about 4-5 minutes per rim. If you do the same job by hand, it will take up to 10 hours or over (I spent about 20 hours lol, I was drunk half the time). If you can't get your rims blowed, go get lots of beer and go through steps 2.1 and 2.2, but if you get them blowed be happy and jump to step 3.

2.1.Get rid of ALL paint. I used stuff simply called Paint Remover which can be found from hardware or paint stores. It's jelly-like stuff which you lay over the paint, leave it for about 20 mins and then start to scratch the paint off with steel brush and paint scraper (don't use any sharp edged scraper or you will scratch the rim). Will take many hours but it's VERY important not to leave any paint, so make sure rim is totally clean from all paint before moving to next step. Check the pic.

2.2.Smooth up all the scratches. You can use wet-sand paper (much slower) or sand-paper bit for hand-held drill (faster) (check the picture). Again will take many hours and you must not stop before the rim is totally smooth scratch-free and ready to be polished. If you leave any scratches, they will show afterwards and the rim can't be polished properly. Check the pic.

3.Now to polishing part. I bought a polishing kit for hand-held drills from local hardware store. It included two types (harder and softer) of polishing wax and two types of rag-bit to drill for laying it. Start with harder wax, go couple of rounds with it and then the same with softer wax. Check the pic.

4.The last stage. I used some stuff called Metal Polishing to give it final touch. Couple rounds of polishing with it and you will have chrome-like rims. Then just put the tyre back and wheel back to the bike and go hit some girls with your shining rims.

Couple of tips:

-Many have leaved the paint on on the inner part of rim (like you said) because it's quite hard to polish due to the shape of it. Will save lots of time if you decide to do the same, just remember to protect those parts well with duct tape (or then rip the paint off and repaint it).
-If you can get your rims blowed it's a weekend job, but if you do everything by hand, I recommend leaving it off-season.
-When working with drill, protect your eyes. May feel stupid, but not as stupid as having a blind eye.

Pics, sorry the bad quality, taken with cell phone camera:
1.Paint coming off and aluminium starting to show. Notice how the tyre is still in place, you should take it off before starting to work so that you don't have to worry damaging it.
2.Tools for taking the paint out. Canister says "Paint Remover".
3.Tools for smoothing up scratches. Different types of wet-sand paper and those drill-bits for hand-held drill.
4.Polishing tools. Two types of polishing waxes, drill with that rag-bit.
5.Results of the job. Pretty bad pictures but they shine really nice.

Hope this helps, I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

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Pics 3,4 and 5.

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Sounds all to bloody hard to me!

I would stick with powdercoating or Electropolishing.

 

Not a bad camera mobile, one could alsmost read the newspaper and all texts on the container is totally clear . Is it a 2 Mpix camera and what type/brand?

 

It's a Sony Ericsson w800i with 2Mpix camera. For a phone cam it's suprisingly good, even with low light (includes led flash too). Of course it won't beat any proper digicam, but it's handy when you need to capture the situation and you don't have your camera with you.

Here's one of those situations, I noticed how amazing car parking skills we Finns have when in a hurry. (all pics are resized because of forum limits)

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No I know why you build strong walls in Finland. Damn good camera, mine has 1 Mpix and is a Nokia 6680 not taking as good pictures as yours. However, it takes pictures that would not be taken elsewhere. The car on the picture could belong to a visitor from a nearby country, right Noe? [X(].