Forget to my experience polishing wheels, as background:

I have polished out two sets of Chrysler/Dodge factory alloy wheels. The types are referred to as 5 on 5s (5 Flat wide spokes, interleaved with 5 thin spokes on a lower layer) and Snowflakes. (NOT the Pontiac snowflakes). Both wheels are from the 1980s, nd were used on Cordoba's (5 on 5s) and Imperials/Fifth Avenues (Snowflakes).

The 5 on 5s were factory clear coated, with a very, very tough argent/sliver epoxy paint underneath. On all wheels, this was scratched/cracked, and in a couple of wheels, dirt had worked it's way under the clear coat/epoxy paint. Id some research, and talked to some people familiar with abrasive blasting, and they recommended crushed glass blasting, with 70/40 grade soda glass. Worked great to remove the coating and paint, but the surface was rough. Started hand sanding with 400 grit, then progressing to 600 grit, and then 1000 grit wet dry sandpaper. They looked good, but weren't as shiny as I was hoping. Back to more research. Latched onto some posts about Flitz. Used the Pre aluminium cleaner first, which noticeably improved the clarity of the surface. That was followed up withFkitz polish on Flitz's own Buff Ball in an electric drill. End result was a set of great looking shells with a mirror like shine.

The Snowflake wheels had similar defects, but as I wanted to keep the darker gray accent paint intact, I ended up just sanding the wheels with the same 400-600-1000 grit sandpaper paper, without any abrasive blasting. Same final step with the Flitz Pre Cleaner, and Flitz polish. Turned out great as well.

A couple of brief points.

1. Forged wheels (both sets that I polished out were forged) are said to shine up better than cast wheels.
2. Both sets of wheels had machining marks (fine grooves), probably left intentionally to help the paint stick better (the snowflakes had a very thin chrome plate appearing coating under the clear coat. Abrasive blasting was the fastest, easiest way to deal with them on the 5 on 5s; only thing that could be used on the snowflakes was elbow grease.
3. Some people will say that crushed glass is too rough on aluminium, but it was recommended over walnut shells and soda because of how tough the factory paint and clear coats are. Soda won't even touch the epoxy paint, and takes forever to even start removing the clear coat.