The slots in the aluminum wheels on my '78 have always looked dirty and nasty and were too hard (8 slots each x 4 wheels..) to clean manually for me to fool with.

Last weekend while polishing my wheels for the C-3 Gathering a light bulb went off in my head pointing to "bottle brush and electric drill"... A trip to Wal-Mart SuperCenter failed to turn up a suitable bottle brush in the baby department. (I didn't know men were allowed in there.)

In the grocery dept. where they sell cleaning supplies I found a neat 2" dia x 3" long plastic brush with a cushioned plastic grip for a couple bucks that looked like it had possibilities. (I found there ARE other interesting areas of Wal-Mart besides hardware, electronics and auto supplies.) On the way out I picked up a can of Mother's paste aluminum polish.

When I got back to the shop I cut the handle off in the 7/16 dia. round area about an inch and a half behind the brush. I chucked it up in a 1/2" electric drill, dipped the brush ends in the Mothers paste polish, made a couple dozen passes in each slot at 550 RPM and the slot slop and grime was GONE.... in about 20 minutes for all 4 wheels.

I finished the job off with a Mothers "Powerball" and liquid polish, followed by a couple of terry towell wipe-offs and the wheels look better than they have in the years I have had the '78...

I have heard there are a lot better polishes available ($Wenol maybe??), but when you are in Sparta, TN on Sunday afternoon Wal-Mart and Mothers is the only game in town. I'm happy!

Dave

Good idea, thanks for passing that info.  Do ya have the larger Power Ball or the smaller Power Ball?

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MICK - C3VR Lifetime Member #113

how do you use the power ball without slinging or otherwise getting polish on the tires?  I'd really like to use one, but from my experience with rubber and wax/polish type products, I am guessing the polish would get down into the pores of the rubber and make it hard to wipe completely off.  Ideas? 

I used the full-size PowerBall with a 1/2" V/S drill, 550 RPM max. Starting slow to get the polish applied on the wheel, once it gets started it slings minimal polish. A higher speed 3/8" or even 1/4" drill might make the PowerBall polishing go faster. I do know the 1/2" drill got uncomfortably hot but held up OK.

The Mothers product is a mildly abrasive polish, not a wax. Any oversling, which is very minimal cleans right off the tire with no sweat.

I did make the mistake of cleaning the tires with Wesley's "Blech White" spray after polishing the wheels, which got on the freshly polished weels requiring a second application with the PowerBall to get that residual crap off the wheel. You are best off cleaning the tires first, then polishing the wheels, then finishing off blacking the tires with an Armour-all gel sponge which comes with a groove to hold the gel.... You would be best off cleaning the tires with a sponge or grubby towell and forgetting the spray application. It makes one helluva mess on polished aluminum.

The voice of experience... first time I had ever used any of the above products..... PowerBall worked good tho.... I flunked out of school as an art major (long ago) and ended up being an automation geek. The artsy part of me wanted to see the PowerBall shine before I engineered the application process.... I've got it down now....

Dave