I have a slight problem with 2 of my wheels. I just can't get them clean.

I usually polish them when I polish the car (about every 4-6 weeks) so they are easy to keep clean with weekly washing.

Unfortunately they have just endured a 5 week spell without getting washed, and, to compound matters, I was running race pads for a lot of that time and getting the brakes so hot that they glowed and threw showers of sparks out!

All the dust now seems to be baked on, any ideas for cleaning them? I have tried all the usual stuff and nowt seems to work.

HELP!

Just come up with 2 alternatives, if I can't get them clean:

1. Buy a new wheel, put the least damaged one as spare and use my brand new spare, so I then have 2 new wheels for the price of one.

2. Get them refurbished and painted anthracite @

I used Wonder Wheels on my 24V Senator wheels and found it really worked. That car had 80K on the clock when I bought it and the wheels looked as if they had done that mileage without being cleaned when I first viewed it. But when I picked it up from the dealer the wheels had undergone a miraculous transformation - the dealer had cleaned them with battery acid! Apparently he always did this rather than use off the shelf cleaners.

20K later I had the wheels stripped and powder coated by Conqueror in Royston. Cost was

Wonder wheels- tried it, didn't work. Also tried: Autoglym wheel cleaner, Turtle Wax heavy duty wheel cleaner, brake cleaner, tar remover, extra strength proffesional cleaner (had the best results with this) but they still ain't fully clean.

Have got a second set of wheels for track now, so it won't be a problem in the future

Battery acid you say? Mmmmm, better go siphon some off

And oven cleaner? Its supposed to get rid of burnt on carbon.

Profesional stength wheel cleaner may work, its very acidic I believe, I have seen the resProfesional stength wheel cleaner may work, its very acidic I believe, I have seen the results on some very bad wheels.

Try asking your friendly dealer they probably have some for used car preparation.

However I find these sort of things tend to leave the wheels a bit matt looking. - so its very important to rinse well

I like Denis's oven cleaner tip it may well work but don't tell the wife or you wil get lumbered in cleaning the oven if it makes a good job

Yep, I'd thought of Mr Muscle oven cleaner! Just haven't got round to it yet, maybe Saturday. It was the pro stuff from a garage that I used. It got a lot of it off, but there is some really stubborn stuff still there. As to the finish, I can always polish them up.

Must say the refurb and paint in anthracite sounds good to me

To help with the cleaning later you might want to try doing the insides with teflon spray ~ as used in more than a few race series. Also helps keep the wheels clean of mud etc, not too sure how it'll do on fancy road wheels though :roll:

I wouldn't use oven cleaner. It usually contains sodium hydroxide, which vigorously attacks aluminium and it's alloys. Dilute battery acid might be O.K., it's sulphuric acid which is used in anodic treatment of aluminium.

Regards: Jim Ford