Take your Meguiars Hot Rims wheel cleaner, set the nozzle to spread the spray and give your pre-rinsed wheels a good coating with the wheel cleaner. It really is fantastic stuff and is safe for bare metal, alloys, lacquer, powder-coated and painted wheels.

When new, engine covers of Japanese machines were either polished and lacquered or painted. Add time, stone chips and ultraviolet light and the coating breaks down. Add in some road salt and the alloy starts to fester away gradually delaminating more of the protective coating to a point where the casting grows a furry grey overcoat. As with all things the amount of energy expended on a job dictates how good the results will be; it’s not all about how hard you polish though. The annoying phrase…don’t work harder, work smarter….is very appropriate when it comes to polishing. Once you are happy that your alloys are sparkling clean, you need to thoroughly dry them. Use a clean, soft microfibre cloth to remove all moisture from the wheel, as this may react with the polishing treatments. Apply an Alloy Wheel Brightener

Bodywork

Metal polishing compound is used to remove surface imperfections, oxidation, and tarnish from metal surfaces, thereby restoring their shine and luster. It is commonly used in various industries, such as automotive, jewellery, manufacturing, and metalworking. Here I’m using gelled aerosol type stripper which clings to vertical surfaces while it does its job.

If you discover damage to your alloys when polishing your alloy wheels. ChipsAway specialists can repair the damage in a matter of hours so your wheels look as good as new again. After polishing, the residue of the compound is typically wiped off, and the metal surface may be further buffed or cleaned to achieve the desired shine. Different types of metal polishing compounds are available, each formulated for specific metals and applications. It's important to select a compound appropriate for the type of metal you are working with to avoid potential damage. I've chosen Zymol cleaner wax to accompany the Zymol car shampoo used earlier. It's now strictly a polish, but it is a wax polish, and by far the best one I've used to get a deep shine. Wire brushes are generally unlikely to leave bristles in the mop face. Finally we’re onto the soft calico mop and removing the polishing marks left by the stitched mop. Time taken here to cover every facet of the substrate will be rewarded with a gleam that will satisfy most of us. As a rough rule of thumb a 370-500w electric motor should cope with a 6” mop. For 8” mops you’ll need a minimum of 500w and more if you can get it. On intricate castings or small parts it’s viable to use a cordless or normal powered drill and even on some large castings the easy access afforded by a drill makes the job simpler.The final step is to apply a finishing polish to the alloy wheels. Apply the finishing polish with a soft microfibre cloth and polish until the cloth is free from product. The longer you polish the wheels, the shiner they will look, so keep polishing! Once your bike is washed in this way, you'll spend less time keeping it clean. With the Zymol cleaner wax, the surface is sealed and protected. After a ride, you will be able to rinse down the bike to wash off surface grit and retain the shine. You can use the Autoglym Showshine to give an instant gloss. When water stops beading up on the bodywork, it's a sign that you could do with a fresh wash and re-application of wax. Metal polishing compounds can vary in abrasiveness, ranging from coarse compounds for heavy-duty polishing to fine compounds for achieving a mirror-like finish. They can be used on a wide range of metals, including stainless steel, aluminum, brass, copper, silver, and gold. When you polish a painted surface, you're removing miniscule layers of paint and in doing so you're creating a smoother surface, free from scratches and swirls. With a motorcycle's bodywork, unless you're very skilled with a polisher, it is best to polish by hand. You could make this process take longer by working in a dedicated polish and then applying a wax/sealant, but after trying this myself, I could not notice much difference. The Zymol cleaner wax is seriously good stuff, giving the bike an incredibly deep, three-dimensional shine.

Metal polishing compounds typically consist of abrasive particles suspended in a binding agent or wax. The abrasive particles can be made of various materials, such as aluminum oxide, diamond dust, or silica, depending on the specific application and desired level of polishing. The binding agent or wax helps to hold the abrasive particles together and provides lubrication during the polishing process.A simple method I use is to start from the bottom of the bike and work up, so with this in mind, we'll start with the wheels. The bottom line here is that if the mop slows down substantially you don’t have enough power to hand. Also consider the size of the work piece. Large objects may be heavy and it’s probably easier to polish something like a bike wheel on a bench with a 4” mop on a drill than it is to hold the wheel up to a bench mounted 6” mop.