Rim staining

Don

Don

Darth Camaro 12/27/15
Once the 2nd coat of Flex Wax is on, I need to turn my focus to the rims. They all have some staining on them that won`t come off with an iron remover or APC. By HAND, a light polish started to remove it, but I was wondering if I should invest in a Mother`s Power Ball (drill attachment) to fully polish out the rims. I plan on using Meguiar`s Ultimate Compound, since I have it on hand. From the overall appearance of the car when we bought it, it had never been polished and waxed or even cleaned worth a darn, so I KNOW the rims have never been polished.

I won`t need the power ball for the Camaro, since it has powder coated steel wheels, but the Escape has painted/cleared rims and they NEED a good polishing, I just don`t know that I have the energy to do them by hand. Is the power ball a good idea?

tn_Escape_rims.jpg
 
Don:
If you want a "poor man`s" method for polishing, go to Home Depot, Lowe`s, or Menard`s home-building supply stores or power tool stores that sell that sell Dremel hand-rotary tools and look for the felt geometric shaped "bobs" accessories that are used and sold with a Dremel tool that you can put a power hand drill chuck to reach those hard-to-get-at nooks-and-crannies on rims, rather than trying to do them by hand.

The now defunct and out-of-business Top of the Line detailing supply used to sell a kit of such felt-covered geometric shaped (cylinders, cones, discs, sphere/balls) bobs for detailing motorcycle spoke rims. One thing to watch our for is not to use too high of a drill speed or hand pressure because felt will develop excessive heat quickly and burn through the clear-coat and paint, unlike a foam cone.

I would mix M105 compound with Meg`s Ultimate compound to form a compound that is aggressive enough, yet does not dust like M105 by itself.
I "dislike" M105, but I tend to over-work it and hence, it dries out and dust (user error). Mixing Meg`s Ultimate reduces that dusting, yet provides some compounding characteristics, rather than using a spritz of distilled water with M105 to keep it moist and reduce or mitigate the dusting as is a common detailing practice.

Or go to AutoZone and see if they have Griot`s Garage BOSS Correcting Cream for sale OR the lower consumer-line Complete Compound, if you want a "better" compound that Meg`s Ultimate compound.
 
Update ... I tried a small area by hand with the Ultimate Compound & an old MF cloth (I had it on hand) and it worked great. It is a bit labor intensive on the fingers though.
 
For future reference, wheel acid would have taken that straight off! It is significantly more powerful than fallout removers.
 
Something like megs wheel brightener or poor boys spray and rinse wheel cleaner should clean that up rather easily. Like said above, you need an acid to dissolve the iron deposits. Iron removers look cool but IMO are time consuming and rather weak compared to a good acid wheel cleaner. They have their place though so I’m not bashing iron removers, just not enough for neglected wheels from my experience
 
You guys are probably right in that a stronger cleaner such as Wheel Brightener would work, but I have a *need* to polish the rims LOL. Since they are BC/CC like the paint, I feel I should treat them like the rest of the paint - polish, then seal, just me being OCD.
 
S[U said:
haneB;2185796]Something like megs wheel brightener or poor boys spray and rinse wheel cleaner should clean that up rather easily.[/U] Like said above, you need an acid to dissolve the iron deposits. Iron removers look cool but IMO are time consuming and rather weak compared to a good acid wheel cleaner. They have their place though so I’m not bashing iron removers, just not enough for neglected wheels from my experience
Click to expand...

This is absolutely true in all the German car wheels I have seen with huge amount of brake dust looking like it was baked on the wheels; especially Bimmers..
I never try to remove it with anything else.. (https://www.autopia-carcare.com/meguiars-wheel-brightner-bundle.html#.YNP46tWpH3g)
And I polish the wheels after this process and they look fabulous..
Dan F
 
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