I bought a set of beautiful wheels from Tramont and I used a very mild cleaner for them after about 2,000 miles. The polished part of the wheel does not have any clear coat on them and the cleaner just destroyed it, the painted centers were fine. Worse than that, I took them to a very good wheel repair place and oh boy is it going to hurt. I love the wheels, not bitching about them, just a warning to take very good care of them and only use soap and water.

I have used this cleaner on every one of my wheels, factory, Braids, HREs and have never had an issue. Still 100% my fault but just be very careful.

The horror:

 

What wheel cleaner did you use?

 

Meguiar's G180132 Ultimate All Wheel Cleaner

 

When I had my Speedlines refurbished by Jim Dorociak he recommended just using a mild car wash soap when cleaning them. I have had other polished wheels look similar after using a dedicated wheel spray on them.

 

Bummer. Tramont does include very clear warnings. There is a postcard with each wheel.

Tramont lips are clear anodized (unless you opt to have them show-polished). All wheels (any brand) with anodization are susceptible to many wheel cleaners. They attack the anodization which is impregnated in the aluminum surface (it's not a coating). A lot of "wheel cleaner" contain very harsh/aggressive additives that break down/attack brake dust/iron, etc. Safest method is water and soap.


Your options here are to replace the lips or have them striped of anodize and polished (stripping and re-anodizing likely would not be cheaper than brand new lips from tramont)

 

I am sure they did, I can just imagine me looking at the wheels and saying "WOW" and then throwing that postcard over my shoulder.

 

Never realized how small the centers look up close.

 

Hi UserA,
I would consider buffing them with a little mild abrasive polishing compound to see of you can cut through what looks like oxidation.
Or consider aluminum cleaner first to cut the oxide or both.
The above can be tried on the back side of one of the wheels to test it and see how well it works. If it works out well then the face of each wheel can be buffed out.
Buffing is done with something like this using a foam wheel:
https://www.harborfreight.com/power-...rs/corded.html
Andy

 

Try smearing them with Vaseline. No kidding. It lasts quite awhile in masking the damage to the anozided metal. Has gotten me through a few Concours.

 

Thanks for the warning! Just a had a new set installed and after playing frisbee with the wanring cards, I would've invariably used a similar product leading to re-polishing them with my own tears. So thank you again my friend.

 

I had a set of anodized RSR fuchs on my g-body, which got totally destroyed with an aggressive wheel cleaner. About $4,000 later, I am now very careful with my wheels and only use (at most) Griot's pH balanced wheel cleaner. Even then, I only let it sit on the wheel for a maximum of 60 seconds.

 

Recently I reached out to Christine to see if using a ceramic was ok for the wheels. Was given the affirmative by her that you can ceramic coat the wheels. I happen to be using gtechiq C5 for a few sets at the time. Just passing it along. I did learn that the rear rim half is NOT clear coated and is a single stage epoxy paint. so If you try to polish, it will get slighter darker, ask me how i know.

 

Ive been using Sonax on Tramonts for years with no issue. Its my preferred wheel cleaner for any finish Ive run across to date.

 

I ceramic coated my wheels about two years ago and have been washing them with either soap and water or Mcguire waterless wash without any issues.

Andy

 

Sonax here also, as well as Mr. Detail detailing spray from Corrosion Technologies on my Tramonts. No issues on either set…993 set from 2013, 986 set from 2022