Looking for advice on refurbishing aluminum wheels

[aconsola]

I got a set of these wheels with an ebay jrx-2 purchase.
They can use some help, but I am not sure what the best process is for refinishing them.
Any advice would be appreciated. I have a dremel, and a drill press but no bench grinder/polisher.
These have already been soaked and scrubbed to get any dirt and grime off.
Thanks!

[highwayracer]

I would first lightly sand or file the rough edges on the lip. I've tried using an dremel to polish aluminum and it doesn't work really well. Since the contact patch of the dremel is vary small, it does not evenly polish the surface.

What you can do is to polish it with the dremel to get rid of the oxidation. I would then bolt a losi front axle to a drill. Put the thick side (the one with the hole for the hinge pin) into the drill chuck. Place the wheel on the axle and tighten with the plastic nut. If possible, use a thin spacer (like a brass tube) between the rim outer surface and the nylon nut. This leaves more of the surface exposed.

I would then use very fine steel wool to polish the face of the wheel. The dril doesn't spin that fast, so you can control the polishing process.

I've never used steel wool until recently...and I'm very impressed with the result. It gives a machined look vs. a bling bling look of a full polish.

Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

Regards,
highwayracer

btw...I would suggest trying this process on the inside face/lip of the wheel just to make sure that you like the finish/results.

[highwayracer]

I've added some pictures:

1. The parts:

wheel1.jpg (48.43 KiB) Viewed 791 times

wheel1.jpg (48.43 KiB) Viewed 791 times

2. Assembled (front veiw):

wheel 2.jpg (50.14 KiB) Viewed 792 times

wheel 2.jpg (50.14 KiB) Viewed 792 times

2a. Assembled (rear view)...insert the axle into the drill chuck:

wheel 3.jpg (48.04 KiB) Viewed 792 times

wheel 3.jpg (48.04 KiB) Viewed 792 times

3. After some polishing, your finished product!!

wheel 4.jpg (42.9 KiB) Viewed 791 times

wheel 4.jpg (42.9 KiB) Viewed 791 times

Regards,
highwayracer

[aconsola]

Brilliant!!!!!
I would never have thought of using steel wool. I used an old hex-shank rc-10 front axle as the nut is 4-40 so it takes up less room and allowed more surface to be finished, the little that could not be reached is under the larger losi wheel nuts anyway.
They are not perfect but they look good.
I was not sure what grade to use so I bought 0,2-0,3-0, and 4-0.
I started with 2-0 and worked up to 4-0. the wheels have a satin like finish. The wool makes a mess, but does a good job in not much time. If you are looking for a mirror-reflective shine, than this is probably only the beginning of the process, but I like the current state and am not going to polish any further.
I did use a file lightly touched to all the edges to clean up some of the road rash.
Thanks a lot highwayracer for the suggestion.

[WillyThickfoot]

Nice job.Looks really nice.




Dave

[bdrmbully]

good job on getting them scratches out.must of taken a good amount of time.