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How to clean & polish aluminum wheels
Quickstart:
The "dust" that wears off of brakes and falls onto wheels is metallic, and the metal is very galvanically incompatible with aluminum and corrosive to it. The first line of defense therefore is to wash/scrub the dust off as often as practical before it causes corrosion. Once the aluminum has acquired very fine pitting from reaction with this dust it will lose its brightness and require polishing. Read on ...
Q. I have tried just about every spray cleaner that the local auto store sells. I have searched the internet and came up with these questions.
1. Items like Trailer Brite that contain acid are bad for wheels and cause damage.
Can it be used safely at all? I have embedded brake dust and some pitting on the wheel. I have found nothing to get it off.
2. If I was to use aluminum polish, and polish the wheel with a buffer, will that clean the wheel or just shine it. I just bought Eagle One Nevr-Dull
⇦ on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links]
and it shines like no end, but did not clean it.
Hobbyist - Diamond, Missouri, USA
June 3, 2009
Hellcat Centerline Wheels on eBay (affil link)
A. If you feel that something is embedded, BT, I think you should try to pressure wash it
⇦ on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links]
, or scrub it with a tampico scrub brush
⇦ on
eBay or
Amazon [affil links] , After washing, you can polish.
In truth, though, you don't polish out a pit; rather, you polish away any metal that is above the bottom of the pit. Obviously, this can mean substantial metal removal, which could be difficult to remove with so mild a polish as Nevr-dull. You may need power equipment and a buffing or polishing compound with a substantially larger grit size.
Good luck.
Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
A. Your wheels are going to need something more aggressive than sprays, rubbing compound or little fuzzy balls on a hand drill. Depending on how pitted and dull they are will determine what you start with. Probably a polishing wheel with a fine emery base compound ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil links] about 220 grit. Following that with hard fast turning buffs using a brown tripoli buffing compound ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil links] and finishing with a soft cotton buff using a fine white chrome rouge ⇦ on eBay or Amazon [affil links] .
Frank DeGuire- St. Louis, Missouri, USA
A. I have a set of 14 year old Hellcats that I have not polished in the last 4 years. The best thing to clean them up with is Mothers mag wheel polish and for the spots where you have pitting I have myself wet sanded that crap out with real fine grit then polished the wheel and they look damn near new.
Now the center caps are a different story -- don't think they are made of the same grade of material; they are a pain in the neck. Hopefully this helps -- good luck.
Rick Heilman- Fayetteville, Tennessee USA
December 17, 2014
A. Okay rookies, I'm a 14 year old young man. I haven't found any chemical that is available to the public yet that cleans aluminum just by spray and rinse. I wish there were.
But here's your answer:
The only thing that works is MOTHERS, you can find this at any auto supply store in the car wash supply section. But, you really have to be dedicated like myself to polish with this solution. Best way to polish with Mothers is by hand. Yes by hand. You go through different layers of tarnish and in my case "brake dust".
If you use MOTHERS correctly, you make aluminum look like chrome. So when you're polishing away thinking you got the best shine out of it, think again, keep going. You'll continue seeing you cloth turn black, repeat and follow until the black is all gone. I know my writing isn't good but I hope this has helped you.
- Los Angeles, California
February 25, 2017
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