Tired of Brake Dust on Your Alloy Rims? (A How-To on Cleaning Up Your Alloys)

[SmokingTires]

So after having been driven for over 12 years and almost 200,000 miles, My Camry has built up a good amount of brake dust on the Stock Alloy rims.

Here is the rim before hand:





So here is the list of what you will need:

You'll need an electric drill.


A Wire Brush attachment.


Some high strenght Soap: Although not needed, it helps to take off the baked in dust quicker. It also helps prevent scratching. I used FastOrange for mine. But any brand will work fine. Just make sure whatever you need, it has Pumas.

Some Paper Towel.


And a Can of Mt. Dew!

It's going to be a while


The first thing you want to do is take the paper towel, and get a decent amount of soap on it. Rub the soap into the area of the rim you will be cleaning. Make sure to not use too much soap. You want just enough that you can get a decent layer on top of the dirty area. Excess will only splatter on your brakes and you.

Once you have rubbed the soap in, take the drill and press firmly against the wheel while moving in one direction. Make sure the drill is sinning in the opposite direction of the way you are going (i.e. The drill is forcing against it, and not rolling). This will have better results.

Keep in mind there is no nead to rush. I found that going quick doesn't get the same results.

Work your way around the rim, changing the direction of the drill as you do each side. You may want to use some paper towels to wipe off any left over soap or dirt.


And as you can see, they results are quite nice



You can see the difference in the Low right side compared to the rest of the rim:



And the finished product:






Keep in mind this won't make your rims as good as new. There may be some dark spots or marks you can't remove. And not every spot on the rim can be reached. But at least it's better then before

Warning!: This is not to be done on any other type of rim besides alloys


Hope this helped
-Mike

[DrtySthV6SE]

wow that stuff was really caked on there, looks good now though

[2wickedtoyz]

does look better but paint helps also

[MRQtwinturbo]

i like to put a coat of wax on the rims to keep them clean and shiny........

[alltrac165]

Looks good. Unfortunately for me, I don't have that kind of patience. I just live with the baked on crap if spray on rim cleaner doesn't do it.

[VVT-i Owns]

Gotta watch that wire brush you can wreck the finish on the rim then it starts to oxidize.

I'd just use a PowerWasher....

[SmokingTires]

A Power washer wouldn't have taken this off. Trust me. Nothing short of a bead blaster would.

However on older alloy rims, there isn't really a finish to damage. I thought about it and looked over it hard first. And the rims are very rough to begin with. And I tried it just a little bit, and no damage. No visible scratches

[Toysrme]

Some Sonus or PS21 Gel I find can remove nearly anything with light brushing (I love OXO brushes!) after a couple of min to set up. If it's not horribly bad, just spray and hit it with a water hose to rinse by the time you walk around the car. Autoglym's tire dressing rules.

Laborday sale is going on at Autopia.org btw. if you type the code SAVEBIG in it's a 15% discount. Great place! Worlds greatest place to learn the alternative lifestyle of car care.

[SmokingTires]

^
hhhhmmmm.... Any chance you might have some connection with them? Or just hawking them a lot?


Yeah, I tried a few different high strenght wheel cleaners. I tried over and over again, but there was no change. It was just too baked in. And at this point, it had gotten into the pores of the rim.

[Toysrme]

I don't hawk their store, I hawk their forum. Autopia.org is probably the greatest car forum if you rate member experiance, help, product knowledge in a flooded field. Just showing the links so that you can see the pics.

I do the same on other forums, I could care less if anyone buys from them, good guy to buy from, but the forum is the allstar.

[SmokingTires]

^
Just joking man You don't need to explain. But next time if you do, ya wanna PM me? It keeps the thread from getting off topics

[Toysrme]

Don't mind it a bit; just understand from my POV if you want to publically joke to me, I expect to be able to show a public retort. =)
So I guess we'll start now? (PM me shhhhhhhhh)

[WhiteRabbit]

im surprised that wire brush doesnt scratch the hell out of the rims

[SmokingTires]

^
Yeah, the rims had a naturally gainy texture to them. So even if it did leave minor scratches, you really couldn't tell.

And at the point the rims were at, Clean with scratches would have still been better

[Nick]

you can do the same thing with a toothbrush and some elbow grease.... and sunlight soap