Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

dgoodhue

BuSTeD 4.3
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

My Rims are still in decent shape, but the clear coats is starting to get funny. I think its only chipped in one small place, but it looks like its scratched and lifting in few others. I think I am going to be forced to spending a bunch money on the rest of the truck so paying to refinishing the wheel is out of the question, for a few years.

My center cap are in good shape except one of them has purplish clear coat (discolored) and most of them are funny around the lock where I stupidly got brake fluid on them. The center caps all still have their clear coat on them so the aluminum is protected. I also have heard the center caps can't be remachined like the wheels can be. I would like to keep them in good shape, so I am going to refinish them before they get any oxidation.

I have been think about refinishing the wheels myself, while I am refinishing the clear coat ont eh center caps. I quickly/lazily redid my Ty wheel and center caps, (it was easier than I expected) On that Ty had to do quite a bit of sanding to remove the oxidation, but this a polar extreme. I want to keep the original look, so polishing is out of the question. I am little worried about what the wheel will look like under the lifting spots of the cleat coat, once I strip the wheels.

So my question is if necessary, what can I use on the wheels to keep the machined look if I have light oxidation?
 

blk00z28

Forced to by choice
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

Maybe your question is more of what I want to know as well Dave. I'm not all for the polished look either, I want stock, but with maybe the polished lip.
 

blk00z28

Forced to by choice
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

I tryed Castrol Super Clean and some Grease Lightining engine degreaser on them the other day, it did clean them a little better. The clear is just needing redone, theres no hope for the wheels without that. I'll just keep them clean for now and wait till next year sometime to get them clean.
 

sy#2716

SyTy 4 Life
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

SY2932 said:
I'm a fan of Wenol myself.
polished_rim_light.sized.jpg

"Polished rim after forty hours of work... "

I have an entire shelf full of various polishes that have tried over the years. The "regular" (red tube) Wenol and Auto (blue tube) gave me the best results. Sounds like your clear coat is shot. If you want to retain the stock machined look, the clear coat will have to be stripped off and the rim will have to be refinished if the surface itself is discolored and or oxidized. Using the Super Clean definately didn't do you any favors. Most of the "industrial" cleaner/degreasers warning against using them on aluminum unless you spot check them first. If you applied it to the rims when they were hot, that made the chemical etching much more aggressive.




I am a firm beliver of wenol i spent about 50 hours on my rims polishing them.
and the sad thing is that they have been in my brother room cover up for over 2 years now i don't want to put them on becasue they look so good polished and do not want to have to polish them again.
 

blk00z28

Forced to by choice
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

Doesnt the clear coat have to be off the wheels inorder to do that though?
 

SY2932

Administrator
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

blk00z28 said:
Doesnt the clear coat have to be off the wheels inorder to do that though?

Yes, the clear coat has to be stripped off and ALL the machine marks must be COMPLETELY removed. Those who think that you can simply use one of those "polishing balls" in a drill and/or just apply some metal polish to achieve a mirror like finish are in for an unpleasant surprise... Once I *finally* finish polishing mine, I'm going to reclear them myself. My coworker's rims that I am in the process of polishing, are going to be my "guinea pig" for how well Eastwood's diamond clear works.
IMG_0894.sized.jpg
 
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dgoodhue

BuSTeD 4.3
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_1000&L2=L2_1007&L3=L3_1500&SKU=20230

This is what I used and it came out better than I expected especially since I really don't put that much effort in. I quickly stripped the wheels, used a random oribital sander, and then I quickly wet sanded the rim by hand and clean and then clear coated it. I was only going to do one rim which was really bad but since was easier than expected I did them all.
 

SYO237

SyTy Registry
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

just drive faster so that no one can see them.
 

TurboJunk

questionable
Re: Best way to clean very very dirty wheels?

sy#2716 said:
I am a firm beliver of wenol i spent about 50 hours on my rims polishing them.
and the sad thing is that they have been in my brother room cover up for over 2 years now i don't want to put them on becasue they look so good polished and do not want to have to polish them again.


your funny lol let me guess your hands and forearms are still trenbling?
 
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