Thread: Polishing Hubs and Wheel Centers

Ok, I'm in the process of redoing my 70. Instead of taking the cheap and easy way out and painting my wheel center, I want to polish them back out how they were from the factory. Please post any and all tips, hint, tricks, ...ect. Thanks, Jared

I had great success by applying Mother's aluminum and mag polish then buffing it out. After, i applied a thin coat of clear finish. Im sure others will have plenty of feedback for this one..

Also.. a belated welcome to the board JollyGreenGiant!
Enjoy your stay!

Happy Riding

Hmm, guess no one else polished out their hubs, haha.

for a good professional mirror quality aluminum shine heres what to do- step 1. buffout scratches and pits with emeroy rouge( its gritty it has sand in it), using a sisal buffing wheel its a course tough type of wheel. 2. buff out the scuffing effects of step 1 with tripoli rouge and a tight woven semi rough wheel. 3. finish buffing with a loose woven wheel and white creme rouge! nothing makes em shine better than this process, its how the pros do it. you can get all of these supplies for bout $30 and its enough to last a lifetime. look up TP Tools online for all your buffin,ploishing, blasting , painting restoration supply needs!! have fun dont forget the elbow grease!!!

By wheel center, I presume you mean the brake backing plates. That's the only part that was polished, everything else was painted.

If you plates don't have any deep gouges, scratches, etc, use a buffing wheel and some tripoli to get a mirror smooth finish. Then clear coat with Dupli color clear paint and they won't tarnish. If you have scratches/gouges/nicks, use a 600 grit wet/dry sandpaper, then an 800 grit, then buff and clear coat as before.

If your plates are in reasonably good shape but are oxidized and tarnished, Mothers works well to bring back the shine, but it doesn't do much about scratches and such for me. You will just have shiny scratches and gouges if you don't work them out first. Take your time, be patient and you will be very pleased with your results.

Originally Posted by JollyGreenGiant

Ok, I'm in the process of redoing my 70. Instead of taking the cheap and easy way out and painting my wheel center, I want to polish them back out how they were from the factory. Please post any and all tips, hint, tricks, ...ect. Thanks, Jared

Weren't they painted from the factory? I had mine sandblasted then I painted them... They came out real nice...

The actual polishing has been covered well enough already. (Note: pros use make-up wheels, but no need going into that can of worms) There's confusion as to which parts JG referred to. The hubs were painted and gettting them to look good polished is a helluva lot of work. The castings are rough as a cob and there are more recesses than you can believe. Honda knew what they were doing with that "cloud silver" paint...it hides a multitude of flaws.

BTW, I have polished a few hubs. Getting one right is a day-long project.

So the wheel centers are painted not polished? I knew the brake peices were polished and clear coated, but I also thought the part that bolts on to the rim was polished too(the 4 star aluminum peice). I just assumed they were polished b/c my front one was shiny already, maybe the paint had just worn off.

Originally Posted by JollyGreenGiant

but I also thought the part that bolts on to the rim was polished too(the 4 star aluminum peice). I just assumed they were polished b/c my front one was shiny already, maybe the paint had just worn off.

The "4 star aluminum pieces" that you are referring to are painted cloud silver as well as the rim halves from the factory. And yes, the inside hub brake pieces are polished and clear coated..