pnblwzd Posted February 20, 2007 Report Share Posted February 20, 2007 I have been looking for something to get that nice new sparkly shine back on my polished amuminum wheels, and Mothers Aluminum polish just wasn't doing the trick anymore. These wheels were not pitted or weathered, just a little dull from normal washing etc. I didn't want to take the wheels off, dismount the tires, and send them in for re-polish, so I decided to try the Mother's Powerball polisher. It is a 5" round red soft foam ball consisting of many small fingers instead of a solid ball, so when you push it into tight detail areas it conforms to the surface, with a shaft to put in a power hand drill motor. The ball alone was $26 and the Mother's "Power Metal" polish was $10 for an 8 oz bottle, or they had a kit with both for $30 at Pepboys. I got the kit, half way thinking I would be returning it because it would suck, but was pleasantly suprised. First, I cleaned each wheel with Costco foaming glass cleaner like I usually do once a week. Then put the Powerball in a variable speed drill motor, sit on the ground in front of the wheel, squirt some of the polish on the lower 1/2 lip of the wheel, smear the polish all the way around the lip to spread it a little (prevents excessive spatter), then start polishing. Keeping the drill at medium speed, and moving the ball around and around slowly, the ball started turning black pretty quickly. After only about 5 minutes per wheel, I buffed the polish off by hand with a Costco yellow microfine towel and was pretty impressed. The dull/whitish appearance was gone, and the damn near sparkly appearance of new wheels was back! I did a little touchup here and there with the drill/ball and buffed it again by hand, then wiped the inside of the wheels and brakes clean and put some shiney tire stuff on to finish it off. Beautiful! Doing this by hand using the regular AL polish would take much longer, been much more labor intensive, and not work as well. I know some of the guys here have had their bare Aluminum wheels professionaly repolished and then cleared, but I didn't want the down-time, expense, and dissasembly of the wheels (these are 3 piece). So for a quick and easy fix, I give the Powerball Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GetWithIt Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 I agree, they do save time. I originally was using the large one, and it was limited on the areas that I could do on my wheels..........I went back and bought the smaller one that comes with the extension, and what a difference. Probably one of my better investments for cleaning rims...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jon1178 Posted February 21, 2007 Report Share Posted February 21, 2007 it does work ok but my damn wheel have to many tight spaces a little nook and crannies for the powerball . i have to use about 5 different attachments on my diegrinder when i polish. next time i get around to polishing my wheels i am taking the tires off and will probally spend all day getting them perfect then i am having them powder coated clear. then i will never have to polish them again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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