Accuride/Alcoa Polishing

[VinceB]

In the last 3 days I've spent about 6 hours on 3 wheels polishing my Accuride wheels. Still one more to go.

I've tried everything from Mother's to Bushes and in between - none of them make it easy.  I get that, but what I want is to seal the wheels once I've got them polished in hopes that I don't have to do it again any sooner than possible.

I've considered applying straight carnauba wax but suspect that it might not last all that long. Any suggestions?

[MyronTruex]

Unless you have incredibly bad wheels, you are working way too hard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BD1FHV8F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use "Driven" wax on my RV, wheels included. 

After using Mothers metal polish for years I found the cleaner and polish shown in the link. 

[Dr4Film]

Some Accuride Wheels or maybe even Alcoa Wheels will have stickers on them stating something about a special coating where you should not use any products that will destroy the coating.

Not sure what your coach may have.

[Gary Cole]

You can use a dye to determine if your wheels are clear coated or anodized. If the dye doesn't stain the aluminum the start with a medium top coat polishing compound. You should see quick results.  If they are clear coated then use the same process one would use to polish an automotive  top coat. If nothing happens then the wheels are anodized. Its much more difficult to obtain a bright finish as the coating is very hard. In that case you would have to use a hard metal polishing compound. I have polished some small anodized motorcycle parts with mixed results. Good luck tackling something the size of a wheel.

Edited May 22 by Gary Cole

[J Goddard]

You may want to try Zephyr Pro-40 Metal Polish. I have had great results on my aluminum wheels using this product. To provide a protective coating, I recommend Griots Ceramic Metal Polish.

[VinceB]

7 hours ago, MyronTruex said:

Unless you have incredibly bad wheels, you are working way too hard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BD1FHV8F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use "Driven" wax on my RV, wheels included. 

After using Mothers metal polish for years I found the cleaner and polish shown in the link. 

I will check that out - thanks. Here's the last wheel I have left to do. It is representative of the others - not horrible but not great either. Here's also a pic of one that I finished. You can see that I am getting good results - just takes too much time, effort and mess; especially the rears.

5 hours ago, Dr4Film said:

Some Accuride Wheels or maybe even Alcoa Wheels will have stickers on them stating something about a special coating where you should not use any products that will destroy the coating.

Not sure what your coach may have.

That's what I thought too way back when I bought the coach - no warning sticker or anything stamped to indicate such.

2 hours ago, Gary Cole said:

You can use a dye to determine if your wheels are clear coated or anodized. If the dye doesn't stain the aluminum the start with a medium top coat polishing compound. You should see quick results.  If they are clear coated then use the same process one would use to polish an automotive  top coat. If nothing happens then the wheels are anodized. Its much more difficult to obtain a bright finish as the coating is very hard. In that case you would have to use a hard metal polishing compound. I have polished some small anodized motorcycle parts with mixed results. Good luck tackling something the size of a wheel.

I don't think they are coated or anodized - just raw polished aluminum.

39 minutes ago, J Goddard said:

You may want to try Zephyr Pro-40 Metal Polish. I have had great results on my aluminum wheels using this product. To provide a protective coating, I recommend Griots Ceramic Metal Polish.

I will check that out - thanks.

[Gary Cole]

On 5/21/2024 at 9:40 PM, VinceB said:

I've considered applying straight carnauba wax

Your wheels look great Vince. Now you have me thinking that I should do something about mine.

I've used lacquer clear in the past when I did not want to mix up 2 part clearcoat. I've found that enamel clearcoat has a yellow tint to it. Clearcoat out of the can seems to wear pretty well. I would use a good cleaner first because buffing compounds can leave an oily film

 

Edited May 23 by Gary Cole

[VinceB]

On 5/22/2024 at 3:33 AM, MyronTruex said:

Unless you have incredibly bad wheels, you are working way too hard.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BD1FHV8F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I use "Driven" wax on my RV, wheels included. 

After using Mothers metal polish for years I found the cleaner and polish shown in the link. 

I ordered this from Amazon as Myron suggested - I liked the sealer aspect of it and the claim that it will remove scale.

I have scale deposits in the rear wheels where water will puddle then evaporate leaving a small "bathtub ring" if you will.

I hope to find out later today how this stuff works.

I hesitate to clear coat anything myself - rock dings can wreak havoc, peeling, etc. - never had good results with that.

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and suggestions. I'll keep you posted.

[96 EVO]

You have two different steer rims 🤔?

[VinceB]

21 minutes ago, 96 EVO said:

You have two different steer rims 🤔?

Yes - been that way since new.  Both left side are the same and are different from the both right side that are the same.  Monaco, I suppose, threw on what they had. Same dimensions, same weight so no issues.  I'm the only one that ever noticed until now.  The DW still doesn't know.

It is certainly not worth the effort to correct the issue merely for cosmetics - you can see only 1 side of the coach at a time. And then I'd have to deal with the 2 extra wheels.

[96 EVO]

Another Monaco " What were they thinking 😖", headscratcher!!

[Dr4Film]

After I got my 06 Dynasty home from Salt Lake City, I discovered that the right front steer wheel was different than the rest of the Monaco Wheels. So I imagine that the original one got damaged somehow and was replaced with a non-Monaco style wheel which looks like an Alcoa wheel.

Monaco's had exclusive rights to the "heart" shaped wheel for the longest time. As you can see in the original posters photos there are two different versions of the Monaco "heart" shaped wheels.

My 02 Windsor has the older heart shape style like what is on one side of his coach whereas the 06 Dynasty has the newer heart shape wheels that have somewhat of a recess to them. The non-Monaco wheel has just basic round holes. So I have 5 wheels that match and one that doesn't. No big deal to me.

[VinceB]

11 minutes ago, Dr4Film said:

After I got my 06 Dynasty home from Salt Lake City, I discovered that the right front steer wheel was different than the rest of the Monaco Wheels. So I imagine that the original one got damaged somehow and was replaced with a non-Monaco style wheel which looks like an Alcoa wheel.

Monaco's had exclusive rights to the "heart" shaped wheel for the longest time. As you can see in the original posters photos there are two different versions of the Monaco "heart" shaped wheels.

My 02 Windsor has the older heart shape style like what is on one side of his coach whereas the 06 Dynasty has the newer heart shape wheels that have somewhat of a recess to them. The non-Monaco wheel has just basic round holes. So I have 5 wheels that match and one that doesn't. No big deal to me.

 

LOL - I bet a bunch of us will go out and look now!  Bet we have more than a few that don't have matching wheels that never noticed.

[VinceB]

OK here are my results/impressions.

As stated in  a previous post, I ordered this from Amazon https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BD1FHV8F/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I have to say this stuff is Great!

Step 1 is essentially a light acid bath - I could smell the rotten egg smell when I applied  it - like delimer from Home Depot on a bad shower.  It did remove scale deposits as mentioned above but did nothing for the pitting as expected. I don't think that it is something that you want on your skin so I wore thick nitrile gloves from HF.  A LITTLE goes a L-o-o-o-n-g way BTW.

IMHO, after the acid bath, I think one could follow up with any polish they desire but I went with what was included in the" bundle" because of the advertised sealing property. Again, a little goes a long way. I am guessing that with the amount I have left, I can do my wheels another 6-8 times.

The results, pictured below, speak for themselves.  Again, a little of Step 2 goes a long way - best to put it on thin and let it dry IMHO. IMHO a terry cloth as suggested is the wrong material. I used some old kitchen towels the DW likes and an old Hanes Beefy-T shirt that worked better. I suspect that new kitchen towels would work even better.

The DW says that these are flour sacks from Target or Joanne - the ones from Joanne are thicker which I think would be better.

For grins, I manually took some Mother's to a section of the wheel in hopes of improving the luster - I dare anyone to show me where that is.

FWIW, I took off all the lug covers and center cap and polished them by hand which made for extra time. And I used my Mother's cone shaped foam drill attachment to do between the lugs.  So I had about an hour invested = about half the time as the others and a lot less effort. 

So I'm sold on this product.

Here's before and after pix.

 

 

 

 

[96 EVO]

Does the label say it contains Oxalic acid?

[MyronTruex]

I retired my Mothers polish after finding that stuff. Trying to get the black stuff off was a real pain and messy. I watched a pro polish my rims once and am sure it was a mild acid bath. That prompted me to but the acid stuff in the link, and then eventually I bought the whole kit. The polish seems to have a nice sized grit and there is no messy black stuff to contend with. 

I have a small orbital polisher that makes the chore even easier. This one is much lighter than my 6 inch polisher and use this almost exclusively. It goes into tight spaces, yet covers a large enough area to make polishing the RV less of a monster chore. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0042KMWBO/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Edited May 24 by MyronTruex

[gjh2916]

You might want to try Sharkhide after you get wheels shiny. You can get in liquid or spray can. I use it on my pontoon boat, and it works great. 

[dl_racing427]

18 hours ago, VinceB said:

Yes - been that way since new.  Both left side are the same and are different from the both right side that are the same.  Monaco, I suppose, threw on what they had. Same dimensions, same weight so no issues.  I'm the only one that ever noticed until now.  The DW still doesn't know.

It is certainly not worth the effort to correct the issue merely for cosmetics - you can see only 1 side of the coach at a time. And then I'd have to deal with the 2 extra wheels.

That would play hell with my OCD!  😱🤣

[VinceB]

15 hours ago, 96 EVO said:

Does the label say it contains Oxalic acid?

Here's the labels so I really can't say.

[MyronTruex]

It definitely smells of very weak muriactic type acid. It is not that harsh on my hands as I would expect.