Polishing the rear wheel in place - what a PITA

cr0ft

Living Legend
Joined
Jun 28, 2012
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2,409
Location
Finland
Ride
Triumph Rocket III Touring 2010
My rear wheel is a nightmare of pitted aluminium at this point, after only two seasons. So, time to break out the drill, the polishing pads and the Dremel to get into the tight holes and shine those up too and then wax the whole ****ed thing.

And then you see the massive shield of the giant brake disc and to add insult to injury there is a big bar going right down across there to hold the panniers up. Can't even get in there with an extender, assuming I had an extender (hopefully will after hitting up the hardware store here in a few).

Oh well, just have to disassemble the pannier rails and try to somehow wedge in the polishing gear where it needs to go. Before and after pics later - I hope!
 
Take the wheel off, it will be much easier.

Paint it black and you will never have to do it again.
 
idk67 said:
Take the wheel off, it will be much easier.

Paint it black and you will never have to do it again.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm completely devoid of lifts, and generally don't do major work that would require me to take the wheel off, so I think I'll just try to get some polishing done. Could really use a 6 inch extender with a chuck for my drill, though... living in a backwater means I have to order that. Blah.

And black wheels on an R3T would look pretty horrifying. Been considering some fake chrome plating with a strong clear coat, but the cost is going to be noticeable.

mr hunt said:
I just had mine off for the first time in 17k km and just noticed it looked pretty rough. I put it back on, now I can't see it, problem solved....
Click to expand...

Yeah, now I see nothing but that ugly-ass grey pitted wheel. The front isn't horrible but also showing signs of corrosion, but the rear would qualify for US federal disaster relief. Gotta do something.
 
You can get a powder coat that looks like chrome .. actually looks better than chrome I reckon. Otherwise Purple Polish is the go for alloy rims.
 
One reason I like the R3T. Those big bags hide the rear wheel. I check the pressure once a week, otherwise I never see the rear wheel. Have cleaned it two or three times in 5 years. Looked fine last time I checked.
 
TOMCAT said:
You can get a powder coat that looks like chrome .. actually looks better than chrome I reckon. Otherwise Purple Polish is the go for alloy rims.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the problem with the powder coat is that it tends to shade towards silver paint rather than chrome when the clear coat has been added. I may just resign myself to figuring out a good routine for polishing and waxing the wheels.

Edit: Ok, once you remove the right pannier rail, it goes from impossible to just somewhat aggravating. With the wheel roller underneath I can (laboriously) spin the wheel, and it's possible to wedge in a 4 inch polishing disc in there and do the rim. What I really need is a polishing ball but again living in a backwater rears its head, haven't seen any locally. But in case anyone wants to polish their wheel... a 4-5 inch polishing ball, some metal polish and a wheel roller and it can probably be done in half an hour with great results.

Add another hour to hour to use a dremel with polishing attachments to get the "spokes" and then wax the whole thing.
 
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I went looking for balls and ok - so this Flitz stuff is actually pretty cool. The small buffing balls are too expensive, but I'm still going to buy some so I guess they're not...

Compared to shipping the wheels off to get coated with some material I still come out ahead and polishing them once or twice a year won't break me.

Skip to 31m, 52s to see the motorcycle bit. The forum seems to discard the time code you can normally add to youtube...

 
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TriumPhil said:
Flitz is OK but this stuff (Major Shine & Colonel Brassy) is much more effective and easier to use, in my experience... http://www.vertexind.com/index.htm
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip, will have to check availability over here. Mostly I'm just lusting after those polishing balls at this stage, exactly what I need. The product is less important than finding a good way to apply it.

I'm in love. Well... lust.


So to sum up I guess the PITA is only not having the appropriate gear to do it with.
 
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