Cleaning Aluminum Wheels
07-07-2007, 09:53 PM
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Under the Radar
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Cleaning Aluminum Wheels
I'm not terribly into concours/spending hours to detail, but I do have a question on cleaning wheels.
I stripped the lips of my cookie cutters (think classic Fuchs, just not forged) last year, because the clear coat was hazing horribly. I now have bare wheel lips that look fairly good from 5+ feet away. As you'd expect, brake dust accumulates very quickly on a shiny surface, and tarnishes it a little. To fix this, I apply P21S metal polish, which shines the wheels nicely. Still, I daily drive this car, and get around to really cleaning the wheels about every 2 weeks. Some of the brake dust stains the lips, particularly on the front wheels.
I have found that dipping a little steel wool in a solution of car wash removes the staining quite nicely. However, I am concerned about "sanding" the metal and unbalancing the wheels. Is steel wool acceptable, and if not, what is recommended?
I stripped the lips of my cookie cutters (think classic Fuchs, just not forged) last year, because the clear coat was hazing horribly. I now have bare wheel lips that look fairly good from 5+ feet away. As you'd expect, brake dust accumulates very quickly on a shiny surface, and tarnishes it a little. To fix this, I apply P21S metal polish, which shines the wheels nicely. Still, I daily drive this car, and get around to really cleaning the wheels about every 2 weeks. Some of the brake dust stains the lips, particularly on the front wheels.
I have found that dipping a little steel wool in a solution of car wash removes the staining quite nicely. However, I am concerned about "sanding" the metal and unbalancing the wheels. Is steel wool acceptable, and if not, what is recommended?
07-08-2007, 02:14 PM
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Burning Brakes
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Don't use steel wool. You're basically cutting into the metal and creating grooves for where the dirt and grime settle in.
Look for some English Custom metal polishes. They clean through a chemical cleaner and not so much from abrasives which is what you want with bare metals....unless really bad and you're using a polisher and pad.
Anthony
Look for some English Custom metal polishes. They clean through a chemical cleaner and not so much from abrasives which is what you want with bare metals....unless really bad and you're using a polisher and pad.
Anthony