jadeuel

Has anyone used the Mothers Polish Ball on the stock polished 18" Bullits?

Trying to determine if this is a good thing to do or is there some sort of clear coat that I should not be polishing on.

shaun_beauchamp

Mother's Knows best! I have 14K miles on my car and wash it twice a week. I polish the wheels at least 2 times per month with the Power Ball and a Dewalt 18VDC cordless drill.

My experience is the Power Ball simply saves you time and effort applying the polish. When you load the ball with polish, it helps to have a variable speed drill as to not fling the stuff all over the car and tires. Once you have the polish on the wheel surface, I use second gear on the drill (1,2,3) and go wide open. This seems to give the best surface polish without scratches or swirls.

I always manually wipe the polish off. I also want to note that any debris that is on the Power Ball is sliding across your polished wheels and makes for a nasty scratch/swirl mark in no time! I did this once, only once, and it took the rest of the day to get the scratches out with some other polish. So the first bonehead move will take away all your saved time.

Aside from that, Chip Foose didn't get where he is today by endorsing things that don't work. He can take anything and promote it, but he isn't hurting for cash these days, and would not jeopardize his reputation on some sponge!

SteelTownStang

Good to know. I was wondering about it as well.

302svt

The wheels are clear coated so it will work the same way as waxing your car except for the heat that te brakes put put out, so I use Wheel Wax and it has done good for me. But if you wheels are scared up then the power ball should do good.

Galaxie

I'm pretty sure the powerball is only for non-clearcoated wheels.. if that's the case, our wheels are a no no

get the wheels really clean (claybar them) and put a few good coats of NXT or zaino and that will help get any brake dust off them in the future

sodaman

I keep hearing clay bar for polishing the paint and now the wheels, first of all, exactly what is claybar, where do you get it. How do you use it? Just wondering. Because if it is something like sandpaper but softer etc, wouldnt it take off the clear coat as well on are wheels. thanks. Just not sure what this claybar stuff is. Thanks for any info.

shaun_beauchamp

Barry Meguiar from Meguiar's Car Care Products has set up a video series to explain the different product types and the benefits of using each. He is candid in his video and explains that not all paint jobs require all of his product options.

http://www.meguiars.com/video/

I watched the first video and posted this, but I plan to look at the other videos when I get a chance.

Sandyman

A clay bar looks like play dough. You lube the spot you want to clay with detail spray and rub the clay bar over that area. You can do the entire car i.e. wheels, glass and metal and plastic body parts. Get em at any auto parts store.

TexaStang

Do NOT use the powerball on clearcoated wheels. Period.

Stoenr

What if the detail spray has a wax in it? Zaino recommends using a small amount of the car wash with water in a spray bottle. No wax just lubricants and detergents.

I think shaun said it best about the power ball. I dont think I would go buy one, but if I got onen for Xmas I might use it.

TexaStang

Powerball is awsome if you have wheels with no clearcoat, ie Foose or Boyd's.

Jim D.

Actually, you can indeed use the PowerBall on clearcoated wheels... you just need to make sure you use a polish appropriate for the tough, plasticized clearcoats on factory wheels -- be that a traditional wax, your favorite wheel wax, or Mothers recommends their Plastic Polish.

If you do use a dryer paste-like wax, just make sure you either mist with water or make sure there's a little bit of dampness in the ball to provide lubrication.


Remember: use a polish appropriate for the finish and the PowerBalls are great on just about anything you'd normally bust your nuckles polishing by hand.

TexaStang

Have fun buffing your clearcoat off in time then with a powerball. You can use the "proper polish" with a rotary buffer and still burn a hole through your paint, this is not very different really -- and considering I've seen the damage a powerball and a 12 volt drill on full speed can do to a clearcoated wheel first hand, I'd just suggest doing otherwise.

On non clear coated wheels that quickly dirty like BC Smoothie's, the powerball is great because it saves quite a bit of polish time. Saving an extra 3 minutes per wheel or so on clearcoated wheels is simply lazy, considering the damage you can do to them.