Hey you guys with polished lips on aftermarket wheels, what do you use to clean you wheels, I have a brush, but its already scratched the lip in a few places, and it sucks bad, my rims are new. By the way, I used Meguiars wheel cleaner and for some reason or another (maybe its too strong) it ate out the finish on the inside of the rim. Needless to say I was pissed and now i just use a wet rag to clean the inside and dilute the Meguiars solution to clean the lips and spokes, still, what kind of wheel cleaning brushes do you guys use? Thanks.

Denny

 

Almost impossible to avoid the fine, hairline scratches on polished lips.

I clean the wheels last, with a new bucket of soap and a fresh lambs wool mitt. Use the pressure from the spray nozzel to remove as much surface debris as possible, then sopa up the mitt and gently clean the rim. If you have a leaf blower or air compressor use that to dry the wheels, follow up with a MF or DF towel. Wenol Blue or NXT All Metal Polish, among others, will remove surface oxidation without harming the finish (assuming no clearcoat on the rim).

I never use a brush. If you don't have a good lambs wool mitt, a clean, 100% cotton towel will work fine. Whatever you use, keep a bucket of fresh, clean water nearby and rinse out the mitt or towel as needed to remove grit and dirt that could damage the wheel.

Useful info can also be found at autopia.org, or in the detailing section of these forums.
https://my350z.com/forum/cleaning-and-detailing/96116-polisihing-lip-on-rims.html

 

Learned a lesson from my friend who used a brush and never touched one. I always go with a lambs wool mitt as well, and there is another product out there but I cant remember what its made of exactly. Using a 100% cottong towel will work fine as well though it takes a llittle more work. Either way you'll be happy with the results though.

 

I use old t shirts, plain water, and for any tar I use starting fluid for fires.

I've found that I make more marks scrubing the hell outta tar marks, If I dab some of the starter fluid on a papertowel and whip the area it tends to take it right off. I then rinse it with lots of water and some times use a normal wax on the wheels.

My wheels are over 1 year old and my car is a daily driver, The wheels still look like they're almost new.

 

don't use that meguiars wheel cleaner for those wheels. It will eat the clear coat. car soap and water, NO brushes. You're using a wheel cleaner to get it extra nice, when in reality your making it worse.

 

The polished lip on my HRE's have no clearcoat. The centers do and I treat them just as I would paint, protecting and cleaning them with Zaino.

Acetone will remove most difficult stains on the lip, such as road tar.

 

I strongly suggest buying this product called WheelWax. It is amazing. It cleans, deoxidizes and leaves a very slippery surface, therefore allowing the dreaded brake dust to not adhere to it. I bought this product about two months ago for my Iforged wheels with a high polished lip. I read about it and tried it out. I used to use NXT meguires briefly and then found this. I know it was mentioned on this forum numerous times as this is how I found out. Do a search on WheelWax or simply go to their website......WheelWax.com

 

Can you use wheelwax while the rims are hot? or will it still do damage?

 

How do you guys clean the back side of the wheels? It's starting to look crappy back there since water would tends to sit there especially after it rains. Since it's hard to reach back there, do I have to remove the entire wheel off to clean it? What do you guys recommend to put to clean wheels WITH clearcoat on them. Would this Wheelmax stuff work? Also, I'd like to remove some hairline scratches as well. Any suggestions? TIA.

 

ive used (i think its called) Mag and aluminum polish. its made by mothers. i used this on my RO_JA GTMs on my VW. seemed to work pretty well.

 

Thanks! Anyone else can confirm this since I heard many aluminum polishes are not suppose to be put on wheels with clearcoating? I just want to make sure I don't mess up the clearcoat on my wheels. Any other recommendations?

 

one more thing about my Ro_Ja's, it was a fully polished wheel with gunmetal spokes(mesh style) and usin the Mother's stuff, it worked out pretty well as far as keepin break dust off. i usually pulled the wheels off every month or so and used that stuff and then just did the normal washing of the wheels and sprayed them off inside and out, and it kept them real shiny, people were always askin how i kept them that clean and shiny. the VW was a sponsored show car and sat in the garage most of the time except goin to car shows and takin out to show off every now and then. i sold the car in april to my friend. needed space for the Z and its parts. Regret sellin it now, even though it went to a good friend because he doesnt take care of it like i did and he uses it as a daily driver. he actually plans to sell it before winter and so far has 7 buyers locally lined up that wanna buy it. feels kinda ackward goin to shows and seein my VW there though. that thing sure is a real head turner around here..

 

All I have to say, is check out their website...wheelwax.com, best product I have ever used on any wheels. It DOES NOT harm the clear coat.

 

Emergency guys!! I wish I saw this thread before. I have used meguiars on aftermerket clearcoated wheels in the past with no problems. But now it seemed to put a "haze" on one of my nice new shiny Volks. How can I get rid of this haze. Please Help!!!

What really pisses me off is that it specifically states that it is safe for clear coated wheel.

 

Yeah, I don't think that's a good idea. I have the Mother's billet polish and the mag/metal polish (I forget the exact names, but I have 2 metal polishes, both made by Mother's). These polishes are designed for METAL, and I don't think you can/should use them on clearcoated wheels. I don't know if it would harm your wheels, but I would advise against it. Although I haven't tried it, wheelwax seems to be highly praised, so I would go with that.

The metal polishes, however, DO work wheel on the stock exhaust tips! Talked about BLING! After applying with a rag and light buffing, the tips start to sparkle. I keep one separate rag for this job, since buffing the tips leaves a black residue on the rag.

 

+1

 

How can I get rid of this haze?? Please tell me there is something I can do other than getting them refinished..

 

I have a jar of blue magic that I was planning to use, is this safe on volks rim and lip?

 

Yeah, what can I use on the volks to make that lip really BLING! Mine are clean as hell but they aren't blinging like crazy haha...

 

BUmp...need some help guys! How do I keep the wheels blingin? They look stupid sweet when they are clean, which lasts like a day with the way I drive. The brake dust cakes the lip and makes it look like hazy. Soap/water works great, but what can I do to keep that look?

ravi