Polishing Pinewood Wheel Bores

The next step for speed is wheel prep.  Polishing Pinewood Wheel Bores is important to get the most out of your wheel. Polishing the inner bore is a step that every league racer does, and most average BSA racers skip. If you need to get the most out of your race, take the 30 mins to polish the bores.  Our wheel polish kit contains all the bits and pieces to do a few wheel sets and give you the advantage over others. As explained earlier, polishing the inner bore reduces friction and increases speed. Reducing friction is key to maximizing your potential energy.

Finally, the last step would be to polish the inner bore and hub surfaces to ensure a near frictionless surface. There is no substitute for removing manufacturing flaws from the injection molding process. Every millisecond adds up. Any plastic polish will work. You will first need a heavy grit to remove all the blisters, then you will need a final polish to make the surface smooth. Extreme racers will seal the bore with a wax or synthetic sealant then finish with a graphite burnish to pre-load the wheels prior to tuning (if using graphite). We offer polishing supplies if they are not readily available locally.

Even faster Speeds Needed?

Hard Core racers will coat the inner bore with a fine layer of synthetic wax / sealant after the polishing step.  With new nano technologies, wheel surface friction is even further reduced to immeasurable levels. As most cub racers are in a time constraint, we feel that polishing alone is adequate to give you the advantage.  Most of these waxes/ sealants need a good amount of time to cure. SO, before you commit, be sure that you have the time to see it to the finish. If you are running in the Mid-America or NYC race derby, you will need to step it up a notch with a final bore treatment prior to lube break-in.

Pinewood Derby Wheel Polish Kit

• 20× micro bore no scratch buffing spears
• 8× no scratch cotton swabs
• Step 1 Polishing compound
• Step 2 Polishing Compound
• 1× Inner hub Dry Lube treatment
• Takes about 45 minutes to complete a wheel set
• Enough swabs to service 1 car
• Drill required for application.  DO NOT use a high speed rotary tool

Polishing Derby Wheels

• Wheels are cleaned, then polishing step 1 compound is buffed in with high speed drill and micro bore polishing spears.
• Once polish is buffed, allow the buffing compound to dry, then buff clean with a micro bore spear.
• Repeat above step for applying second step. Again allowing the polishing compound to dry after application and buffing clean.
• Once dry, the wheel goes through a final buffing process that makes the wheel’s bore pop to a nice and shiny surface.
• Wheels have spun for approx 15 seconds without any lube applied.

Instructions provided. Check out the YouTube how-to video on polishing Pinewood Derby Wheels.

Polishing Pinewood Derby Wheels