black matte/satin wheels stained white - etched?

makjur

makjur

New member
I have a tacoma trd pro with the factory trd pro wheels on it, which are a satin matte black
I used to clean everything myself but for the past few years i have just been running through washes due to lack of time
This staining has gotten worse and worse, I tried to do something about it the other day, and nothing I have in my arsenal is helping.

aside from mild soap and wheel cleaners, the last thing i tried was some meguiars compound on a microfiber and trying to finger the surfaces. Also tried glosswork glaze from chem guys.
one wheel is untouched, while the other pictured i tried the polish on
I'm starting to think that I need to machine polish these things, with all the angles and surfaces I'll have to plan on having the wheels off the truck

Anyone have any experience with this?
didnt find much searching on here
 

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Almost looks like they were acid etched/compromised from high ph/caustic chemicals/cleaners.

I know some wheel cleaners will do that to some Porsche matte black center lock wheels and center lock nuts.

I'm not 100% that you will be able to bring them back fully without repainting/powder coating.

I'm sure some others will chime in!
 
Are they clear coated? I know satin is tough when polishing, because you can lose the “satin”. The glaze won’t correct, it’ll just fill in imperfections, maybe, if at all because it’s Chemical Guys.
 
Unfortunately, I suspect that Sizzle Chest got it right and they will need professionally refinished. If they were mine, that's what I'd be looking into.
 
You know ,makjur, the photo of the one on the right which, I assume, is the one you have tried to hand polish.
While not "perfect", it is a lot better than the etched one on the left. Whether you can live with that like the one on the right is up to you.

I would be more interested in in how it got like that in the first place. Since you have mentioned going through automated car washes, if the soap that they are using is that caustic to cause this etching on the rims, I might try to find different car wash place. That said, part of your problem MAY be because the vehicle was not rinsed thoroughly enough at the wheel/rim level OR not dried completely and the soap/water residue is water-spotting the rim surfaces.
Cannot say if a hard-water mineral remover would help in that regard, but it might be worth a try. Hard water mineral etching is a bugger to remove by hand, and your assessment of requiring a machine polish is probably an accurate assessment of resolving or at least mitigating the problem. A cheap do-it-yourself alternative to this may be buying a Mother's red foam cone (not sure if they make a small one and a large one) that can be attached to a cordless or electric drill and try polishing it out yourself with a compound, followed by a polish. Just be sure to clean the foam cone out on a regular basis as you go along. Do one rim or even a few ribs of the rim and see what difference in appearance it makes. I highly suggest using Griot's Garage compound and polish you can find at an auto parts store OR Meg's Mirror Glaze M110 compound and M210 polish from a auto paint supply store IF you need to buy something over-the-counter.
 
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