Cleaning rims

[shajbot]

Stock aluminum rims gen3. Very greasy. Do I just need some kind of degreaser like engine brite or something? Thanks

[xtremeskier97]

I just posted in the Detailing forum and someone suggested simple green and a cheap scotchbrite from dollar store.

I just bought a mini powerball from mother's and some polish. I have yet to use it because I want to know how to do it right.

[shajbot]

K I'm try that when the sun goes down.

[cmjohnson]

I've found that No More Dust, available at Advance Discount Auto Parts and probably other chains as well,
is by far the best thing I've ever seen for removing brake dust, but the stuff is vile beyond imagination
and really DEMANDS that you wear long length rubber gloves when dealing with the stuff, and you sure
want to avoid the spray mist! Keep a hose handy to rinse any extra off of anything that's not the rim.

It'll certainly remove grease, too. And probably any touch-up paint.


If your rims are original, odds are they're pretty worn by now. The original finish is probably pretty well abused.

I suggest you do like I did: Next time you get tires, or whenever you want to do the extra work, take
your rims to the local friendly neighborhood powdercoating shop and have them media blasted clean then
powdercoated in whatever you like.

I chose silver that approximates the original finish pretty well.

Results:





This is rim no. 5, my primary spare. (Yes, I have two spares, a steel full size and this,
once a tire gets mounted on it. I'm detail polishing this rim right now, making it even
more perfect than you see here.

A well polished powdercoated rim, especially if well waxed, is a VERY easy rim to keep clean.

CJ

[shajbot]

Yeah that's the one that I have. But man that is one sparky and sprinkly rim.

The rims are original but you know, it's not like they have to slide against something so I don't know what you mean by worn. But yeah, I'd probably do when I get new rims, not really in the mood of taking the tires apart of the rims right now.

Thanks

[WhiteRabbit]

thats what i want to do, have mine blasted clean and polished

looks great! lets see them on!

[EvoFire]

Hey cmjohnson, did you repaint the covers too?

[cmjohnson]

Yeah, I did repaint the covers. It's an exact COLOR match, being straight silver, but the flake size is a little finer and the apparent "lightness" or "darkness" of the caps changes depending on the angle of the light.
At some angles, the caps are lighter than the rim, at others, they're darker. Go figure.

It's not much of a change, though, and they do still look good.

But since the covers are plastic and powdercoat is baked on at 400 degrees, there's no way that I could
have the plastic covers powdercoated, obviously. So they got a silver basecoat and clear urethane topcoat.

I'm thinking of redoing them with a slightly larger flake to make a better match to the rims.





This is my car at the very start of my refinishing process. It looks a little different now! But you can
see the rear rim well enough.

All four rims were powdercoated about a year ago, or more, and have been in service the whole time.
I had them done at my last set of new tires.

They cost me about 75 bucks per rim to be redone. I think it was a very fair price.


CJ

[BlueFusion6851]

Looks very good! I recommend getting a toothbrush and just using elbow grease to get all that crud off of the rim. That's what I've been doing.

[xtremeskier97]

Originally Posted by BlueFusion6851

Looks very good! I recommend getting a toothbrush and just using elbow grease to get all that crud off of the rim. That's what I've been doing.

Tried that....dont have a toothbrush stiff enough to do the work.

[shajbot]

Some glass cleaning should work. I'm doing mines right now.

[cruisn76]

Has anyone consider a baby bottle cleaner???? The brush good enough to use between those hard to get places. Just like cleaning a baby bottle Also, not as much elbow grease involved, Just don't use it on chrome rims.

[cmjohnson]

I actually just spent some time super-detailing the rims. Some brake dust was getting embedded a little bit, so I used 2500 grit sandpaper, wet, and sanded/polished out every last trace of dirt that was stuck to the rims, and then buffed it back up to a mirror shine. Then I wax them. That helps a lot!


CJ

[xtremeskier97]

CJ....did you paint your antenna black too?

[cmjohnson]

I tried it, with spray paint. It's fine if it never is retracted, but if it retracts, polishing it up really well is a better option.

My stereo doesn't have an antenna control output, though, so it stays up unless I manually retract it.


CJ