Due to the lack of funds I had to drive on my rims during the winter....

The wheels are 20 inch Ruff's.
Before



After



I tried soap washing it, it was coming off real slowly. I applied some alum polish but it doesnt seem to be working. Please help!!! It looks so bad....there has to be some chemical to get it clean.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thx guys

 

just take it in and have the lip refinished

 

Use dawn soap or some kind of rim cleaner. I had some 20's on an old truck that had not been cleaned in months and all I did was just rim cleaner and dawn soap.

 

Its coming of real hard...i doubt it will all come of...and it would take 3hrs per wheel of hard pressing...

Is there a chemical that can help it without destroying it?

 

How much would that cost do u think?

 

You can try something called Diamante. Or Mothers with Gas. Mothers with Gas works real well on polished aluminum. I have a bike that is completely polished. Sometimes I get real lazy and don't touch it up during the whole riding season. As you know during the winter it will get really bad. Mothers and Gas always does the trick. Now Diamante is something I get from Puerto Rico, not sure if they have it out here. But that just finishes off the polish real nice. I attached a photo below so you can see how it leaves my polished frame and rims.




On a side note do those lil circle mirrors help? I ask in all seriousness I tend to have to move my mirrors around a lot to get a comfortable setting.

 

get some of this:




follow the directions on it.
will work wonders.

edit: also, if its really bad, consider wet sanding it with 1000 grit, then 2000 grit, and follow it up with the mag polish. I did this on a set of wheels that were really bad and they look great now.

here is the difference:

 

Thx I ll try to pick that up.

Yea the mirrors help, I got ones taht are adjustable from diff angles and you can set them to your liking. Helps with the blindspot which is a problem with z's.

 

I got the same Mothers thing but the writing is a little different and it was cheaper...is there a big difference in the one u posteD?

Also, mine it seems is just black dirt that got into the top layer...there is no erosion or any color fading...plus I think this is a diff lip then urs...was urs a chrome lip?

 

shouldnt be i dont think. That one is the one ive bought for years.

of course i wet sanded those because they were really in bad shape.

No, that lip is a polished aluminum lip. Polished aluminum can look just as good as chrome if you put enough work into it.


This is when i got finished:

 

But look at my first pic...thats right after I got them...I doubt they can get cleaner then that....

what did u use to apply the polish...just a rag ?

 

did you drive through wet cement lol? thats almost what it looks like good luck man just scrub like a mad man.

 

Just a Chicago Winter

 

No, they can get much more polished than that, but you will have to sand them down by wet sanding. Factory your wheels came with what most call a "machined lip" which is not finished to a fine shine like the wheel i posted. Typically cheaper priced wheels will just come with a machined lip.

Your lip in the first pic = machined aluminum

This lip on one of my volks is made of aluminum as well, but its polished and andonized

The pic of my CCW is just polished aluminum. I took 1000 grit wet sanding to it, followed by 2000 grit wet sanding, then an aluminum polish, then a 3m rubbing compound.

 

damn thats rough. Im from oklahoma but can semi relate because instead of plowing if it snows a flake the sand trucks and salt trucks are out dropping thousands of pounds of **** that will eat my paint. Did you not clean your wheels at all throughout the winter though?

 

The P21S Metal Polishing Soap or P21S Finish Restorer should be able to help you. The Poorboy's World Wheel Sealant should help you protect the wheels during the harsh winter months as well. Use a combination of these two products and you're wheels will look and stay much cleaner.

Greg @ Detailed Image

 

Great advice from everyone. My Rims on my bike need to be re-polished. Going to try the wet sanding method. I can get them back to shiny but not wet looking.

 

any tips for the p21s finish restorer application?

 

If you used aluminium polish any clearcoat is gone. Best of luck.

 

How do I know if it had a clear coat on the lip...and I only put it on a tiny piece of the wheel and it didnt seem to work so i stopped,