Hey guys. Have a set of ~5 year old RG5s and the lips have seen their fair share of wear. They have some fine scratches from the years of driving, see the attached pic. How can I polish those out or can I? I suspect there is some type of clear coat on them and normal polish may be a bad idea. Is there anything I can do?

 

I doubt there is a lot of clear coat on there to wet sand and buff them out.
If your fingernail get caught in the scratches when you go over them with you nail, it’s fairly deep. I would probably say you might need to wet sand the lips, re-polish and re-apply clear coat on the lips. Could by a DIY if you’re up to it? Or is there a reputable shop around you that refinishes wheels?

 

Don't DIY this.... I had the same thing a few years ago on my Champions - and I decided that a "fun" winter project would be to strip the clear coat and polish the lips. NOT A FUN project at all, as it turned out. There is a hard clear on the lips, and it is a huge pita to get off, without damaging the gray center. I ended up sanding the clear off, and polishing the lips by hand. They look great now, but soooo not worth the effort.

Tom

 

As some folks have mentioned already, the lips of the wheels have a hard clearcoat on them, similar to the paint finish of the car itself.

So, if the scratches are very very minor, you could try a light polish. If they're deeper, it might require a sand and polish, but then you run the risk of sanding too much of the clear. If they're really severe, most people opt to have the clear stripped, the lips polished, and the clear re-applied but a qualified wheel repair center.

 

I would be extremely hesitant to try wet sanding my wheel lips. Wheel repair is not easy or cheap. I looked into getting one of my lips re-finished, but there is a risk that it will not match the others when finished.

 

Thanks. I'm pretty solid with a high speed polisher have done more than my share of cars including wet sanding the paint etc so no issues there. I wet sanded half the side and front of my car

I'll give them a light polish with my medium grit by hand, then the finishing polish and wax and see how that goes (sort of like a 3 stage with no high speed polisher)...

 

Thanks Tom for the info. The hardened clear coat like what's on the car was just the info I needed. Just finished a claybar and 3 stage polish on the lips, look 100% better. Not perfect cause I can't get my rotary in there but definitely made a difference.

 

looks pretty darn good to me!

nice job!

 

looks much better than before !