How To Get Impurities Out Of My Wheels

[Harey]

Hi Guys,

I am trying to clean up my wheels. The middle part of the wheel cleans up nice with some wheel cleaner. However the dish remains stained. I have tried different wheel cleaners but it seems to be within the metal now. I also tried quickly some metal polish but no luck either.

Any ideas?

Here is a pic, needs to be closer but you get the idea.

[batakr33]

Autosol metal polish

[Harey]

Yeah I tried that but couldnt budge it. Maybe I should try harder??

[Harey]

Just reading here: http://www.englishcustompolishing.com/usca/aluminum1.html

They reckon to use wet and dry paper. Anyone done this?

[GTR-N1]

Tried "Upper Engine Cleaner" from Subaru?

It could remove all the sh/t that was on my OEM wheels from Japan.

It works if Zymol wheel cleaner doesn't.

When it's all off, you may need to respray the wheels with 'clear'.

[Harey]

Strange that subaru stuff is meant for the inside of an engine haha. I will give it a shot though.

Wet and dry paper sounds pretty full on.

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

could take it to a rim repair shop and get them to re-machine the lip.. or machine buff it?

[Harey]

Ah ok yup thats the next step if I cant do it pretty easily myself.

After some google searching I found two products, ALUPLUS and ALUBRITE. It is an acid that is supposed to clean aluminium and then polish it really well.

Think I will try that and then resort to a rim repair shop if it doesnt work.

[75coupe]

That ALUBRITE is a pretty harsh acid, Ive used it to clean the outside of the head, the cross over pipe and stuff like that.

ALUBRITE will burn your hands if you dont wear gloves its that strong, it will eat the duco as well and anything else that gets in its way... Ive used it in conjunction with a toothbrush to clean all sorts of things... it'll clean brake dust build up off rims, but it will also scar the paint and leave shiny alloy dull, I havnt tried it on powdercoat...

[Harey]

But it should work on the aluminium dish of my rims as long as I dont get it anywhere else?

I will just try a very small part of the dish with a toothbrush to start off with.

Edited June 16, 2010 by Harey

[wlspn]

As mentioned alloy brightener can make shiny alloy dull but if you then polish it you should be ok...

Be careful with the stuff. Wear a mask or don't breathe, & wear gloves. I use it at work to clean transmission cases & it's strong stuff!

You'll know when you breathe it in...

Edited June 17, 2010 by wlspn

[Mr Eps]

hey... okay here's what you do.

first of all.. this method sounds strange and it will be MOST noticable with bad rims (i mean RIM rims... not "wheels")

go to bunnings

get a very fine steel wool.

no. not that dishwashing crap that you use to get black stuff off pots. this is steel. wool. SIFA make it.

looks like that.

rip a chunk off. big chunk. the bigger the chunk, the more surface area you have to scrub with. the more surface area. the less pressure. less pressure, less chance of scratching. get it?

use either water - or olive oil as a lubricant... i suggest olive oil as it won't ake the steel wool RUST. use a lot of it.

gently rub the steel wool on the wheel. if the stains won't come out, apply a little bit more pressure etc

the basic premise of this is... steel wool is soft as butter. but it is still a METAL. your aluminium / steel rims are a harder metal, and will not "give in" to the steel wool easilly

the steel wool sacrifices itself to clean the metal.

give it a go if you so wish - i imagine that there is a certain element of risk doing this method... but i've done it plenty of times on my wheels which - at one stage were VERY badly corroded.

steel wool is about 8/9 bucks

everyone else take note.

oh and wash the olive oil off the rim using a soap / detergent / shampoo (dah)

[Mr Eps]

it's strong stuff!

You'll know when you breathe it in...

ps - this is perhaps te funniest thing i've read here all week.

hahah

[Craved]

i think you need to determine if the dish area is clearcoated from factory - if it is, you will most likely need to remove that before being able to polish it.

[toddlls]

Try tooth paste

[SRB]

find some "hi lustre" metal polish, it gets anyting off, and a toothbrush and a few hours, i cleaned up some wheels that were 100 times worser than urs lol

[Harey]

i think you need to determine if the dish area is clearcoated from factory - if it is, you will most likely need to remove that before being able to polish it.

Your right on the money here, the dish does have a clear coat.

I started with the steel wool and it wasnt doing much, so I went a bit harder and I could see it take the clear coat off and go down to metal. I have only done this in one small area.

What issues does removing the clear coat raise? Should I remove it or just leave it there and give up.

[Harey]

These guys seem use aircraft stripper to remove the clear coat:

http://forums.corral.net/forums/showthread.php?t=763405

They just say it takes a bit more effort to keep em clean. Its only the dish of my wheels so dont have little nooks and crannys that would be tricky to keep clean.

Would love the rims to have a super shiny dish

I am leaning towards removing the clear coat.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Harey

[Craved]

just remove it - and then polish them - you will just have to keep polishing them llike you would a polished engine bay piece.

[Harey]

Cool thanks mate, will do!