How to Polish Aluminum Wheels — For a Lasting Shine
As car or motorcycle nuts (or total nuts, like myself), we know how important it is to keep our vehicles looking shiny and new.
Unfortunately, I still remember the first time I tried to polish aluminum wheels. I thought it’d be like polishing any other metal — but the result didn’t come out as shiny as I intended, and it quickly lost its sheen.
Before trying again, I decided to find out everything I could about how to polish aluminum wheels for a lasting shine. This is what I learned.
Aluminum or aluminium? One extra letter, and one extra syllable… Australians, Brits, and even Kiwis all use the latter spelling. I don’t think it’s important how we got here. What’s important is that it’s shiny!
Let’s not get started on tyre vs tire…
Table of Contents
How to Polish Aluminum Wheels — In a Nutshell
Polishing aluminum wheels is a little different to polishing other metal surfaces. Fundamentally it’s the same — get it smooth, and protect it.
But because wheels are more exposed than chassis parts to things that can ruin the surface (as they rotate at high speed and can have rocks fly at them, flung off by the tyres), you should take a couple of extra steps when to keep the shine intact for a while. Polish your aluminum wheels when you want to, not when you have to.
The good news is that there are some easy ways to really improve how you polish aluminum wheels.
Polishing Aluminium wheels — Preparation
First, remove the rim (or rims) you want to work on from the vehicle. Either take the tire off, or take it to a shop and have the tire removed, too. This will give you a low-stress environment in which to work.
Remember to keep your vehicle in place with a high-quality car stand or motorcycle stand. Don’t leave the car jacked up using just the car jack — it’s not rated to hold a heavy load for a long period of time.
Before getting started, prepare your rims for the make-over. The first thing you want to do is to give your wheels a thorough wash and then dry them off.
The reason it’s important to have the rims clean first is that if you rub in dirt and grit, you can risk making the surface even duller than it already is. And recovery from that point might be harder.
Once your rims are dry, use a wet rag or paper towels to get rid of any excess grease, dirt, or dust around the wheel. You can use a mixture of household vinegar and water, or a soft cleaner like Simple Green.
After cleaning, the next step is to smooth the aluminium wheel’s surface with increasingly fine grades of sandpaper.
Start with 320 to 400 grit wet and dry, and work up to 800, 1200, and 2000.
This pack of wet and dry sandpaper on Amazon is cheap, has thousands of good reviews, and will be very useful.
It looks like way too many gradations, but you get multiple sheets of each gradation (as you can see from the colours)
Most people reading this will be doing minor jobs to their wheels (which I presume are already in pretty good condition). So polishing your rims by hand is a good option.
And at some point you’ll need to sand by hand to get into all the nooks and crannies.
Sanding by hand can get very tiring, even though it’s therapeutic and quite satisfying to see the results.
But you might also want to save time on the larger surfaces using a buffing wheel and sanding attachment. For major jobs, like restoring a barn find, this is the way to go.
Types of Aluminum Wheel Polish
You have many options of aluminum wheel polish. We have another article on the best aluminum polishes, but I’ll go over it here in general.
Basically aluminum polishes come in three varieties — cream, spray, or gel.
Cream aluminum polish
The most common (and I think the best, and the only one we recommend) kind of aluminum polish used to polish aluminum wheels is a cream polish.
Mothers polishes (including aluminum polish) are some of the most recommended by anyone (including online).
They’re high-quality, affordable, and very easy to use.
You can get these in tubes, bottles, tubs, or cans. I like tubs for ease of application, but they can also be time consuming — you have to use your hands (with rubber gloves and a clean cloth) to rub the polish on the rim.
On the other hand, tubs are less messy than spray or gel options, which trade speed for messiness.
When using cream polish to polish aluminum rims, apply the cream with a cloth in a small circular motion.
Remember again — use rubber gloves.
Spray aluminum polish
A spray-based aluminum wheel polish may be called a polish, but they’re typically more for cleaning (the final stages) rather than used to polish aluminum wheels from a dul condition.
But if your wheel is already pretty shiny then they’re a good option. You spray it on, then wait a few minutes before rubbing it with a cloth or washing it away with water.
Sprays are a good option if you’ve driven through a dirt road and the wheels are covered in dust (with metals in them), or something else which might threaten the surface of your rim.
Gel aluminum polish
A gel polish typically comes in a bottle. This gives you a lot of control over how much you’re applying.
Like the creams, you get the gel and apply it directly to the wheel.
Generally, aluminum polishing gels don’t work as quickly to bring a deep shine out of wheels that need a good buffing.
Polishing Aluminum Wheels — Post-polish maintenance
Maintaining your polished aluminum rims is important. There’s nothing more annoying than coming back to polished rims the next day and seeing they’ve taken on a weird tinge…
Here’s how to protect your polished aluminum wheels.
Once the polish has dried for about 10 minutes, use a clean microfiber cloth and go over the surface of the wheel again. This will remove any leftover residue or dust that might have stuck on while you were applying the product.
You have to throw away the rags once you’re done. It’s hard to get the aluminum polish out of the rags, unfortunately.
To really seal in the polish, use a ceramic coat. There are many well-reviewed ceramic coatings on Amazon, and one of my favourites is this one.
If you use a ceramic coat, you can avoid polishing your rims again for a long time… years, if you dont’ drive it that often.
Clean your wheels as well as the tire rims at least once every two weeks. You can do this by using either soap and water or detailing spray with an applicator. This will make your aluminum wheel polish last longer.
Conclusion
To polish aluminum wheels is a great way to upgrade the looks of your car or motorcycle.
Once polished in the right way, your rims should stay smooth and shiny for a long time. However, this depends on the road conditions where you drive, along with how much you drive.
All in all, polishing aluminum wheels is a pretty simple process. And if you do it well and protect the rims with a good coat, it’s a job you won’t have to do very often.
