While this is a dirty and somewhat time-consuming job I've used this method on three sets of wheels and had extremely good results with it.

Road grime, salt, brake dust and other crap seems to have a really nasty effect on the wheels of our bikes, especially over time. They get pitted and spotted and scratched to where they no longer look anywhere near as good as they did when the bike was new. If you are like me and spend more time riding than washing I'm sure you know exactly what I'm referring to here. After trying the toothbrush and scotch-brite pad route to limited results I figured I'd go all out and try and find something that worked really well and was cheap at the same time. Here's what I've done:

Materials needed:

400 grit wet/dry sandpaper
800 grit wet dry sandpaper
1500 grit wet/dry sandpaper
2000 grit wet/dry sandpaper

water

Aluminum wheel polish

polishing cloth and generic rags


Depending on how bad the wheels are you may be able to omit some sanding steps. If they are really bad you'll probably have to use 400 grit first but in the majority of cases you can start with 800 grit. In this example the rear wheel is off a 2006 with moderate pitting and spotting.



The first step is to clean the wheel normally and prepare your materials. On this wheel I am using a square of 800 grit wet/dry about the size of two postage stamps. This all needs to be done by hand and the small squares seem to work better. Dunk the square in the water and begin sanding in the direction of the wheel from side to side. It should look like this:



Wipe off the mess and make sure you've removed the pitting,spotting and/or scratches. If not then repeat the first step. You'll end up with a dull finish on the wheel that still shows signs you've been sanding on it.



From there move up to 1500 or 2000 grit paper and repeat the wet sanding process.



When finished wipe down the wheel to clean off the mess and then use your aluminum wheel polish on a polishing cloth to finish it. I use Mother's Mag and Aluminum polish but any decent one should be fine for this.

You end up with a result like this:



Again, it does take some time to do each wheel and it is a LOT easier to do it with the wheels off the bike. Your fingers will definitely know you've done this after you finish it as well. Still I have yet to find a better way to restore the wheels to "new" looking condition.

Hope this helps someone!

DBD

 

Very nice write up! Thanks for that...I was just gonna start on my wheels this week. This is very helpful. How long did it take you for each wheel?

 

It's slow going at first until you get the hang of it. It depends on how badly they are pitted up and how long you have to sand to get the damage out. The first set I did took about two solid hours but they were really badly pitted. The last set were similar to the one I took the picture of this afternoon...took a little over an hour for both wheels.

They key to getting a smooth "new" appearance is to bring the finish back up gradually from 400/800 grit to 2000 grit. Only sand parallel to the wheel and do sections about 6" long at a time. When you get the hang of it you can do longer sections easily.

I don't recommend using power tools of any kind. This is the kind of thing that really needs the touch of your fingers to get it right. A PITA but the results are well worth the effort.

 

Also...when you get it done I recommend waxing the aluminum surface to make it more resistant in the future. Once you get ahead of the oxidation and pitting it isn't nearly as hard to keep them clean.

If the MOCO would clear coat these wheels from the factory most of this could be avoided...

 

Great, thanks so much for the info. We'll see how this turns out. Motivated now!

 

OK Deadbird...

I took a whack at it. First, I started with the sandpapering but as I moved along on the rear wheel I thought why am I busting my **** here? I did some research and tried some buffing compounds for the front wheel. I think there's a couple posts over in the softail section as well.

Suffice to say, I've got work to do perfecting it, but I thought I'd throw a couple pics up. I'm trying to figure out how to polish the center of the rotor. Man, that thing is stubborn!

Thanks again for your tips.

 

Absolutely...if it's just dirt and residue you can use the compound to get it back looking right. What happens though is over time the wheel surface itself becomes pitted and the only way to smooth the finish is to sand down the pitting to get a smooth surface.

It is a load of work either way...hard on the fingers for sure.

 

Hey guys - great info. If it make you feel any better, I have about 4 hours detailing my front wire wheel. I used Turtle Wax Polishing compound on the aluminum hub but was unable to get the spots removed. I will try the more aggressive sanding today. Did a little section just now and seems to work great.

Is there some type of coating on these parts that I am sanding away?

 

Nope...they don't clear-coat the wheels like the car manufacturers do. Sure wish they did...