18 wheeler question

[DgenerationX]

Re: 18 wheeler question

Hi,

I've been polishing 18 wheelers for about 3 years now, I've been doing it professionaly for 1 1/2 years now. It is a extremely difficult job, a very dirty one too. To polish Aluminium, I have never use any car products. Most of the time you have to sand the aluminium ( on truck's budwheels and lower part of the tanks) You really have to know want you are doing to get a perfect mirror finish. Buffer trails are very commun on tanks, you have to do a perfect straight line to hide them, always from left to right, never from top to bottom. I'm gonna give you the website from where i order my polishing stuff. If you are a bit lost just ask me i'll help you! I can also post some pics to show you some tanks i've done.

http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/index.html

[cndracer25]

Re: 18 wheeler question

the automotive stuff will not work properly and you will take weeks to do the job right. you need to use proper wheels and rouge's to get the job done. useally it will take atleast one cutting stage and then a polishing stage. how much you charge will depend on what kind of service you are going to provide. are you going to take the wheel off to do a complete jobs or a wheels on. to start you are going to need a quality acid wash to clean the alunimum before you start. you will need a liquid polish to help lubricate i suggest f1 polish. like the other guys said it will be a dirty job. i know the guy that does it in my area charges 2-250 for the wheels alone but he is quick and does a good job. i would expect to not make a great deal of money your first few time or atleast untill you can do it in a reasonable amount of time. some of the products you will need are on the first few pages of the link from my supplier. hope this helps


www truckerssupply.com/Minicatalog.pdf (Add a period and paste it into you browser for the link to work)

[Poki]

Re: 18 wheeler question

[Poki]

Re: 18 wheeler question

Couldn't figure out how to reduce the above wheel pic. That's a 14 year old alum. wheel on my mothorhome. It's the "machined finish" and not the "polished" finish aluminum. I use the Flitz Buffing Ball http://www.flitz-polish.com/index.ph...externalId=154 and also their 2" ball. I tried Mothers balls and the Flitz balls are many times better! I threw the Mothers away. I don't care for the Flitz polish however.

[Show N Tell]

Re: 18 wheeler question

Poki that looks awsome! Ill be sure to pick up a Flitz buffing ball. DGX if you can post some pictures that would be appriciated! Thank you all for your input!!!

[Murr1525]

Re: 18 wheeler question

Incidently, #105 is also an option, not sure if it is stronger than the metal polishes or not, but an option if some is laying around.

[DgenerationX]

Re: 18 wheeler question

Ok so here is a set of tanks i've done and a pair of budwheels. Here in Canada, the aluminium on trucks are very rough due to our winter, salt and heavy dust. So I always have to sand the aluminium before i polish it. I don't know how bad are the wheels/tanks you have to do! The pic where you see my face was taken in the tank ahaha :P

If you have anymore question, ask free to ask!

[Poki]

Re: 18 wheeler question

You done good! Looks great. Just curious....what did you use to sand them with?

[DgenerationX]

Re: 18 wheeler question

just ordinary sand paper, 6inch round velcro sand paper on my dewalt sander. I usally sand the wheels to 600 grit for the final sanding and 1200 for the tanks.

[FRS]

Re: 18 wheeler question

Looks amazing!

[Bill Davidson]

Re: 18 wheeler question



That does look pretty good Marc.

p.s. your fingers look well worked for a 19 year old. Keep up the hard work.

[DgenerationX]

Re: 18 wheeler question

ahahah tkanks bill,

I wore nitril gloves tho, look at my forearms lol they are black!!!