Thread: Help with cleaning wheels

Ok, I am at my wits end, I bought 2 stock SE-R alloys about a year ago, then bought another 2 about 6 months ago. I planned on hanging on to them till I needed tires. Well I need tires, so it's time to clean the rims. The second set are dirty, but nothing a good cleaning wouldn't fix, but the first set... Words cannot explain how dirty these two are. It's more then just brake dust, road grime, tar, it's this crusty build up of God knows what.

Example:

From a distance





Close up




I've tried everything I can think of.

In order:
Dishwashing soap and a sponge - Didn't work
Autozone brand wheel cleaner with a scrub pad - Didn't work
Simple Green - Worked a real little
Krud Kutter - Worked slightly better then simple green
EZ-Off oven cleaner (got desperate) - Didn't work
Mr. Clean eraser - Didn't work
S.O.S scrub pad - Didn't work
Goo Gone - Didn't work
WD40 (got desperate again) - Didn't work
Hand Cleaner (figured WTH) - Didn't work

What I have been doing is using a dull screwdriver as a chisel and slowly scraping it off. I've worked on one wheel for about 10 hours total, no joke, it's taken me that long and I'm only about half way done. I spent a good deal of time on the front of the wheel trying not to scratch it.

At this point I'm getting close to just saying F-it and stick to the stock steelies. Then I look at the almost final product and can't wait to see them on my car.




The outside looks good, but I want the inside to look just as good. I'm willing to entertain any suggestions. So please forum bretheren, anybody have any experience with wheels this bad? Any tips and/or suggestions.

Thank you,

that looks almost like rust..try some sandpaper..like 150 grit...should clean it up nice..and just spray paint it silver againt...should turn out nice...

^ I agree with the newb, sand and prime I would say

I was hoping I could avoid sanding and painting. I don't think it's rust, as far as I know, alloy doesn't rust, but I may be wrong.

It could be a bunch of stuff that got stuck on there over time. Take a wire brush and go at it. I would slap some sort of paint on it when done to make cleaning them easier in the future. If the wire brush does not work use sand paper, there is no other way around it.

Edit:
Alloy does not rust, but the stuff attached to it does.

Use a Brillo pad, or some other steel wool.

sand blast them is what i would do. manually sanding them i dont think will do as good of a job as sand blasting them

That needs some sanding. Sand, wash, primer, repaint.

Yeah I think that's what I'm going to have to do.

i would say its most likely just tiny rocks/sand other stuff hitting the inside part of the rim making the paint come off and causing it to semi rust ...i would say sand paper but then again you might need to throw some clear coat otherwise its possible to happen sooner then as if you were to leave it with out it....its going to keep happening no matter how much you take care o them.....maybe not soon but eventually it will



good look on it and deff keep us posted on this