Polishing the wheels makes a such a dramatic improvement over stock, I found it quit necessary to do.

Without sufficient sense to prevent me from tackling the inner hub and spokes, I ventured forth.

A dremmel was used to grind the raised lettering off the spokes. Aircraft paint stripper was used

to remove the paint from the outer rims. The paint on the spokes and hub required sanding off, necessary anyway,

using a Black'n'Decker mouse sander with 180 grit paper. Then, by hand, I sanded the whole wheel with

320, 400, 400 wet, 600 wet, then 1500 grit wet paper. The 320 was a little rough for the rim, but allowed removal

of scratched/nicks. I used Tripoli polishing compound by shaving off into a pile (comes in a stick),

then dipping a 100% cotton cloth containing some mothers polish (easier to work with the tripoli that way, imo).

Last polishing step was to use many (many) applications of mothers polish. Finally sealed with Maguiars wax.

With polished wheels as opposed to chrome, there's some maintenance involved. Other than keeping clean

after each ride, I use mothers every few weeks to keep up, not really a big deal if your setup.

Cost was a few hundred for materials, and about eight hours of my time per wheel.