I was hoping someone might have information and recommendations about polishing aluminum wheels.

I did 2 sets of 79 wheels a year or so ago. Used regular paint stripper, I think BIX(?) but not sure. It takes a few application and scrubbing with steel wool. Once all the clearcoat was off I used sandpaper, wet, starting with 100 grit and working my way up to 800. I would have gone up to 1000 but I was going with the "spun" look that's correct for 78/79. Anyway, after sanding I used rubbing compound and a big 9" polisher. Looked pretty good. But then I lightly dulled them back down with scotchbrite to get the correct finish. Reshot them with clearcoat(with a gun and Dupont Chromaclear)and masked the centers and repainted the black. Don't use the VHT wheelcoating as it yellows very quickly. I found that out the hard way, had to redo the first set I did after 3 months.

You can get a lot of good polishing supplies from The Eastwood Company.  I bought a pack of 3M sandpaper at the Wal-Mart that included 240, 400, and I think 600 grit in it.  Scotch Brite pads and plastic scrapers come in handy. 

I used oven cleaner spray to strip and bought a Harbor Freght Buffer 1 hp with 8" buffing pads to polish.  I did 2 sets look great but manly work holding those wheels to the buffer.  Over heated one bufferand returned to H F for a replacement.

This old post may help (link below).  My wheels arent clear coated but I have used spray on "aircraft finish stripper" from the local auto parts store and it eats paint really well and quickly...just be careful and keep it off of your skin an anything you dont want stripped.

Oven cleaner? Never would have thought of that.

I have refinished a bunch of aluminum wheels, tho I have yet to tackle a Corvette wheel.  I use aircraft aluminum stripper, seems to be commonly available at most body shop supply.  I started with an Eastwood Wheel Buffing and Smoothing Kit, and finished with Mothers Aluminum Polish.  It took some experimentation to figure out buff speed and pressure because I didn't have anybody to show me how, just read and figured it out on my own.  First wheel I ever did took me all weekend.  By the second set, I had it down to about two hours per wheel. 

I appreciate this question because it made me research what would be correct finish for the C3 wheel and prompts some follow-up questions.  Looking at several close-up pics of the c3 slotted aluminum wheels on digitalcorvettes.com, it appears the slots were all originally painted and I can't tell from pictures whether the surface was smooth or cast inside the slots.  On some wheels I have done, the "slots" were natural sand-cast finish, and thus sandblasting with a medium media was perfect (after thickly masking the polished surfaces.  Also, the wheels I have done have a distinct spun machine pattern and thus I was careful to buff in the direction of the pattern.  Its hard to tell from the pictures if the Corvette wheels had any machine pattern originally or if they were all mirror smooth.