Need help with aluminum rims................

M

mcc

New member
I have a friend that has aluminum rims that look like they've been neglected. Her husband just put new tires on them, and convinced her to keep the Tahoe rather than buying a new car. So, she's wanting the Tahoe to look great, but I'm not so sure about the rims. I don't have a lot of experience in wheel restoration, though I detail all the time and clean lots of wheels of all types. These are extremely rough and gritty, as if the brake dust has etched it's way into the wheel itself. I don't think that the wheels have clear on them, or at least I can't tell that they do.



How would you go about trying to restore them? Is there a ph neutral cleaner that would remove that stuff? Maybe an acid? Should I consider sanding or wet sanding in some manner? Possibly some steel wool, or a steel brush of some sort? Perhaps a combination of everything mentioned?



IF I can restore them, I'll be sure to apply protection afterward.



Here is a pic of the wheels, taken from my phone. The second is a closeup of the damage:



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that looks really bad, assuming its raw aluminum here's what I'd do. from the looks of it it's all pitted and covered with oxide which is kinda like rust on aluminum.



  1. hit it with the strongest cleaner you got. don't worry if its not made uncoated wheels, you're going to have some mechanical action on this one. the idea here is to remove any loose and surface stuff first.
  2. use 600 grit wet sandpaper (if that doesn't make a dent move down to 400, 200)
  3. remove sanding marks with 800-1000 grit
  4. remove fine scratches with 1500-2500 grit
  5. remove haze with either a powerball mini or 3" foam pads and a metal polish, I use the one that came with the powerball mini.
  6. hand finish with mothers billet.



    in lieu of steps 5 and 6 I've also used heavy metal polish in red, green and blue to hand finish aluminum, it's a lot of work but comes out great in case you don't have the machine to polish with.
 
Acid. Phosphoric, hydrochloric... naval jelly... many acid based cleaner at home depot, lowes, etc. It will remove the oxidation and leave a surface ready for polish.
 
Acid. Period. It will make the wheels look bleached out. We use All-Bright Aluminum Polish, but a GREAT consumer brand is Mothers Billet. Kinda expensive but those wheels will look brand new.
 
People always seem to forget about acid based cleaners. Back in the old days, before all the wheel where clear coated, they pretty much all had acid in them. To bad he could not get his hands on them before the tires where mounted. I have a bench grinder set up to double as a polisher. Other wise it is drill/dremel/air grinder with felts bobs/wheel and the appropriate compound.
 
Okay, so it seems that the options come down to cleaning with a really strong acid type cleaner, followed by polishing, or wet sanding followed by polishing. That brings up 2 questions:



1. Can I use a strong acid type cleaner if the tires are mounted? It sounds like a bad idea, but I thought I'd ask, as I have no experience with these rims. If that's the case, then I guess I'll need to wet sand instead.



1(b) Are there any products that I could use that aren't necessarily acid? I haven't looked, but I've heard good things about Flitz Aluminum Preclean, and I believe Sonus makes a good product for aluminum rims. They may be acidic though.



2. Is wet sanding the rims pretty much as foolproof as wet sanding headlights? I've wet sanded headlights as part of a restoration process with great results, but something about doing it on metal makes me more nervous. I'd hate to screw up a wheel. Any tips, warnings, etc.? When wet sanding headlights, I usually go one direction with one grit, then another direction with the next, and so on. After hitting it with a very fine paper near the end, I usually use a polish to bring back clarity to the headlights. I guess this would be similar. They'll look bad until I polish them, but at least they'll be minus the damage they have now.



Just trying to make sure that I don't get in over my head or do something to mess up the new tires or anything.



Thanks for the advice thusfar! This is a great forum.
 
sounds like you got the sanding steps down. just from the pics I don't think that an acid cleaner on it's own will do the trick, it appears to be pitted. I can't imagine acid being good for rubber so don't keep it on there for too long, maybe give the tires a thick coating of tire dressing to help protect them before you start. for larger flat areas you could use roloc sanding disks and or scotchbrite pads in an angle grinder to make quick work of it.



yes, it's similar to wet sanding headlights you need to work your way up in grit to remove the scratches. but it's a lot more work as the aluminum is a lot harder then plastic. you have a lot of room for error so don't be afraid to work it. you're not going to use the same light touch as with plasic.



I've used the sanding technique to remove some pretty deep curbing and when it's done you can't tell where it was. don't worry about it damaging the surface you can always sand/polish it out.
 
The Flitz preclean is a type of acid as well. Urea Monohydrochloride. Flitz makes very good products. Acid will only clean the surface and remove the oxidation. After that you can look at them and decide next steps (polish or sand and polish). Acid will not harm the rubber.
 
rdorman said:
The Flitz preclean is a type of acid as well. Urea Monohydrochloride. Flitz makes very good products. Acid will only clean the surface and remove the oxidation. After that you can look at them and decide next steps (polish or sand and polish). Acid will not harm the rubber.
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Okay, so it would be okay to use the acid cleaner while tires are on then? Cool. I was thinking of using the cleaner, knowing full well that I'll probably have to sand afterward, but thinking that perhaps the cleaner would help make that sanding a little less labor intensive. Since they are so covered in the damage, my thought is to clean them up as easy as possible to whatever degree they can be, and then proceed through the wet sanding steps. I seriously doubt that the Flitz Precleaner will remove it all, but hopefully it can cut down some of it.
 
Oh, and I just want to thank everyone for their input. Perhaps I'll even post some before and afters, assuming the afters are worthy of posting.



Any idea how long a project like this might take, wet sanding 4 large wheels on a Tahoe, then polishing? Like I've said, I have done headlights, but I'm thinking this will take a bit longer, lol.
 
Scottwax said:
Plan on 2-3 hours per wheel.
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Wow! It makes sense, but I had no idea how to quantify it. That will be quite a project. It is hard to imagine scrubbing a wheel with sandpaper for that long.
 
Update:



Well, they didn't want to compensate me for wet sanding, and instead opted for me to purchase Flitz Aluminum Preclean to see what it would do. It did pretty much nothing, and I told them that wet sanding was the only option that I saw. They declined, as the guy that changes their oil says that a local detailing shop can "put the wheels in some chemical" and they'll come out looking like new. More power to them, but I really think that sanding is the only real option. Oh, and I actually think that these wheels have a clear on them, it is just so hard to see because the wheels are so severely damaged. I think stripping them down and sanding them, then waxing or re-clearing is the only option other than buying new ones. In the end, they just want them to look better, I don't think they're looking for perfection, but I think that they may be so far gone that the only things left to do are extreme enough that they will have to go for perfection or leave them looking like they do.
 
aluminum is a real pain to polish... the results are almost always worth it however... it just looks soooooo amazing when done correctly. I did it for several years, but it's messy and very time consuming.
 
mcc said:
Oh, and I actually think that these wheels have a clear on them, it is just so hard to see because the wheels are so severely damaged.
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HAD a clear-coat on them before the brake dust ate it away.



In the end, they just want them to look better,
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A long time ago, I had a '79 Mustang with TRX rims in similar shape. Mother's Mag Wheel Polish will get the wheels silver again, but unless you polish and re-clear-coat, they'll just be a dull-silver - but better than they are now.
 
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