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Author Topic: Cleaned up wheels finally!  (Read 10434 times)

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Offline Kitzy

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Cleaned up wheels finally!
« on: May 03, 2009, 10:21:04 AM »
So after being really lazy and not swapping wheels/tires this past winter, winter took it's toll on my wheels.  I made a thread with pictures of how they looked and a couple cleaners I tried.  I tried cleaners, polishes, powerball, things I shouldn't... Repeated washing since then have seemed to help but not enough.  So finally I went out and tried some steel wool and metal polish and that seemed to do the trick.  Though it left a dull, satin like finish that needed to be polished out.  The I opted to remove the wheels for this because getting around the lug nuts was next to impossible.  Keep in mind the lighting in our shop at work is absolutely terrible.  We spend very little time there so it's not worth improving.  

I'll start off with a few pictures of how they looked before I did anything.  







Next step was to pick a polish to use in conjunction with the #0000 steel wool.  Dedicated Metal Polishes on hand were the entire English Custom Metal Polishes lineup, Adams #1 and #2, and Optimum Metal Polish.  After going through a few of them while initially trying to clean the wheels I found that English Custom Metal Polishes Metal Restorer had larger, visible chunks/abrasives and seemed to work the best at removing the worst stuff so I chose to use that with the steel wool.  Here are 50/50 shots of what it looked like after the steel wool.




And a shot after the entire wheel was polished with steel wool and Metal Restorer.



Next step was to polish them to shine since the steel wool leaves light scratches causing a satin look.  After trying different polishes I settled Optimum Metal Polish because it seemed to be finishing down finer than the others with the added benefit of it sealing as well.  Some parts of the wheel required more than pass as the steel wool left heavier marks in some places.  This will be evident in the 50/50 shot.






Now that you got the gist of it all here is a quick close up of the second wheel and an after shot of the same wheel.  The after pic shows some imperfections yet.  I'm not sure if you'll be able to see them in the resized image or not.  At full size you can see them.  There holes have some minor pitting that I'm not sure if I can fix or not.  After looking at the pictures I also noticed that missed a few spots as far as wiping them down goes.



I stopped documenting after wheel one with just a few pictures of wheel 2.  I started running out of time because I had to be somewhere so I had to concentrate on getting them done.

Also here is a picture of what it looks like during the steel wool step.





Back when I was experimenting with one of the wheels trying to get it clean I tried some different things.  I mentioned that I also tried some things that I shouldn't have.  One of them was Meg's Super Degreaser.  I sprayed it on and agitated.  Well it ran down the wheel and stained it or etched it.  Most of it came out but the following picture shows that it has spots on it.  They're a lot easier to see in person but the wheel still looks much better.  I'm not quite sure if those are fixable.






« Last Edit: January 16, 2010, 12:43:10 PM by ESF »
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Obsessive Detail

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #1 on: May 03, 2009, 10:45:21 AM »
Nice work Mike!  Great job on the writeup and pictures.

Offline Kitzy

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #2 on: May 03, 2009, 11:41:55 AM »
Thanks Justin.  I forgot to add a picture of the barrel of the wheels.  It was sort of an after thought so I wasn't concentrating too much on them.  I just wanted to give them a real quick clean up while they were off.  Just a quick 50/50 shot.  The #0000 and Metal Restorer made prety light work of them.  Half of the barrel took me less than 2 minutes to clean up, wipe off the residue and seal up with Opti Seal.  Speaking of Opti Seal I should also note that I sealed everything up with Opti Seal as well.
« Last Edit: January 19, 2010, 08:25:20 PM by ESF »
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline hwm3

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #3 on: May 03, 2009, 12:22:10 PM »
Looks good. You made a huge improvement to them.

I use OS on my wheels all the time. It's easy and has good durability.  :thumbsiup:

Offline texbigred1

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #4 on: May 03, 2009, 12:49:52 PM »
Looks good man!! :thumbsiup:

Offline Mike2301

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #5 on: May 03, 2009, 04:08:06 PM »
nice work!
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Offline Rollingrock

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #6 on: May 03, 2009, 06:52:26 PM »
Nice job ESF, really looks good and well documented.

Thanks for visiting the Cafe, come back often.  There's always something new!

Offline Kitzy

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2009, 06:57:43 PM »
Thanks guys. 

Has anyone ever tried wet sanding aluminum?  Some of the holes still bother me a bit.  They have really light pitting that catches your eye, atleast it catches my eye and probably most of you would see it as well.  If that's an option how does it compare to steel wool?  What grits would be appropriate?
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Too Stroked

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #8 on: May 03, 2009, 07:46:09 PM »
Technically, I think you might actually be better off with wet sanding than with steel wool. Here's my reasoning. One could possibly imbed small particles of steel in the aluminum surface with steel wool. That would be inbedding something that could also corrode later. On top of that, one would also have the "two dissimilar metals" thing going - which would be double bad.

I'd try starting with 400 grit and lots of water, then move up to 800 and 1500 before going to a buffer with polish. I actually think that might work pretty well. If it does, please get back to us because I have a customer with a fairly ugly set of uncoated aluminum wheels that's willing to pay me to bring them back. And yes, this does make you the crash test dummy. Sorry about that chief!
« Last Edit: May 03, 2009, 08:00:13 PM by Too Stroked »

Offline Kitzy

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #9 on: May 03, 2009, 07:54:52 PM »
I may be willing to try that on the face of the one wheel that still has spotting.  As for the others, the only thing that bothers me yet is the inside of the round holes where the brake dust sat all winter.  Hell, even if I screw them up it's not like I lost any money on them.  I never did pay for them.  That was a mistake that worked out quite well for me.
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Too Stroked

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #10 on: May 03, 2009, 07:59:31 PM »
I may be willing to try that on the face of the one wheel that still has spotting.  As for the others, the only thing that bothers me yet is the inside of the round holes where the brake dust sat all winter.  Hell, even if I screw them up it's not like I lost any money on them.  I never did pay for them.  That was a mistake that worked out quite well for me.
Have you tried the new Mother's Power Cone? I've been looking at them ( I have both Power Balls, but have yet to use them) and the thing intrigues me. It might just work for your application.

Offline Kitzy

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #11 on: May 03, 2009, 08:16:13 PM »
I saw it but thought it would work better on smaller, tighter places.  The 3" Duraball was just a bit too small to fit snuggly in the hole so I had to move it in circles around the hole in order to get decent pressure.  I guess depending on the larger part of the cone it may work alright.  Any idea how stiff it is?  Possibly compare it to an LC pad?
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

Offline Too Stroked

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #12 on: May 04, 2009, 06:37:32 AM »
I saw it but thought it would work better on smaller, tighter places.  The 3" Duraball was just a bit too small to fit snuggly in the hole so I had to move it in circles around the hole in order to get decent pressure.  I guess depending on the larger part of the cone it may work alright.  Any idea how stiff it is?  Possibly compare it to an LC pad?

You know, if somebody didn't read the first part of this thread and just jumped in on your last post, I wonder what they would think about our conversation?

 :rn:

Putting that aside (and finally having stopped laughing), I haven't actually been able to see one of those bad boys out of the package. In fact, the local Parts America store has removed all of those Mother's polishing products from the packages on the shelf. All they have is empty packages and you have to ask a clerk for the actual product. I guess folks were liking them a bit too much. That said, it looke like an easier to use product than the Power Balls - and now we're heading down that same path again ...

Offline Tdub

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #13 on: May 04, 2009, 10:49:10 AM »
 :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh: :biglaugh
You're only here for a little while, do it while you can.

Offline Kitzy

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Re: Cleaned up wheels finally!
« Reply #14 on: May 04, 2009, 05:51:48 PM »
If you've read enough of my posts you probably have realized I don't often read over what I write.  That said, your post made me go back and read my post.  Wow.  Maybe I should start reading what I post.
If you always do what you\'ve always done, you\'ll always get what you\'ve always got.

 


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