Stained Chrome Wheels..

S

Sting2324

New member
Hey There!

My cousin has an 01 Mustang with some chrome Saleen rims. Before he stored it for winter he gave it his quick wash and sprayed the rims with A2Z Wheel Cleaner. He just recently brought it back out for warmer weather, and upon doing this, we noticed that some of the rims have a whiteish looking stain on them. I tried cleaning with some soap and water, chome polish and the last I had of some highly diluted Meguiar's Wheel Brightner, but those stains are being stubborn. I was thinking on probably getting another gallon of the Wheel Brightner and giving it another go, but I thought I'd get some advice on what I should do. My next step would be to try some clay. I highly doubt this would work as it's meant to remove overspray/contamination, but i'm not sure what else to use. Thanks in advance!
 
Yea, I was just considering on placing an order for them for the Natty's Blue and the Leather stuff. Here are some pictures of the wheels just to get a better understanding of what the problem is...

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Pick up some Flitz polish at your local hardware or marine store. It's a very effective cleaner, and offers decent protection too. I haven't found much that Flitz can't tackle, and it leaves a blinding finish on chrome.
 
Sting2324 said:
Hey There!

My cousin has an 01 Mustang with some chrome Saleen rims. Before he stored it for winter he gave it his quick wash and sprayed the rims with A2Z Wheel Cleaner. He just recently brought it back out for warmer weather, and upon doing this, we noticed that some of the rims have a whiteish looking stain on them. I tried cleaning with some soap and water, chome polish and the last I had of some highly diluted Meguiar's Wheel Brightner, but those stains are being stubborn. I was thinking on probably getting another gallon of the Wheel Brightner and giving it another go, but I thought I'd get some advice on what I should do. My next step would be to try some clay. I highly doubt this would work as it's meant to remove overspray/contamination, but i'm not sure what else to use. Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

The part where you say that "before storing he sprayed some A2Z wheel cleaner on" was this allowed to sit on the car all winter? or did you wash that off then go into storage?

Also are these wheels clear coated? the white stuff sitting on top of the chrome makes me think that are....from what I remember of these rims they are clear coated polish aluminum, at least the ones I have worked on where.
 
Sting2324 said:
Yea, I was just considering on placing an order for them for the Natty's Blue and the Leather stuff. Here are some pictures of the wheels just to get a better understanding of what the problem is...

DSC04710.jpg


DSC04708.jpg


DSC04712.jpg


DSC04711.jpg
Click to expand...

These look like clear coated polished aluminum and what you are seeing there is the clear has clouded up from the cleaner sitting on them to long or being to strong. What will take that off with some elbow grease is PB Pro-Polish and again you are going to have to work them allot...you can also get a polishing ball for the end of a drill that will greatly help...

If they are not clear coated and you can tell that if when you polish the rim and the rag turns black....then what I would use is Zephyr Pro-40...Dwayne has that in his store....Heat really is what you need for that application so the polishing ball on the drill will greatly help again...that's my .02
 
Beemerboy said:
The part where you say that "before storing he sprayed some A2Z wheel cleaner on" was this allowed to sit on the car all winter? or did you wash that off then go into storage?

Also are these wheels clear coated? the white stuff sitting on top of the chrome makes me think that are....from what I remember of these rims they are clear coated polish aluminum, at least the ones I have worked on where.
Click to expand...

I had asked him if he forgot to rinse it off, but he honestly doesn't remember if he did or didn't.
According to him, these are not clearcoated, but straight chome. I mentioned that maybe it's polished aluminum with a clearcoat, but he is insisting that it's chrome.


Beemerboy said:
These look like clear coated polished aluminum and what you are seeing there is the clear has clouded up from the cleaner sitting on them to long or being to strong. What will take that off with some elbow grease is PB Pro-Polish and again you are going to have to work them allot...you can also get a polishing ball for the end of a drill that will greatly help...

If they are not clear coated and you can tell that if when you polish the rim and the rag turns black....then what I would use is Zephyr Pro-40...Dwayne has that in his store....Heat really is what you need for that application so the polishing ball on the drill will greatly help again...that's my .02
Click to expand...


Yea I think what I'm going to use is the PB Pro-Polish and the Flitz or the Powerball. From the sound of it, it seems like this would be the best combo.

When I used some polish on it the other day, the rag did not turn black. I mentioned this to him, but he is still insisting that these are chrome and not polished aluminum with a clearcoat. lol. BTW, Who is Dwayne and what is his store? I know..probably a routine question..but i'm new!

Thanks again everyone for all your help. Appreciate it!
 
Based on the way those rims look and that its a performance car....chrome would seem to heavy for that, especially for Saleen wheel....but I could be wrong....The thing that strikes me about them is the white stuff or lets say cloudy look and that's what I'm seeing....that you see allot on aluminum and clear coated rims....to take it a bit farther use can use acid based wheel cleaner on chrome and not get that effect....or maybe they are clear coated chrome, and the staining is from the cleaner sitting on the surface to long...that will make them cloud up....so I would get that power ball and some good polish like PB and that should do the trick...keep us posted
 
Those are chrome, looks like he forgot to rinse the cleaner off.

If a chrome polish is doing nothing, then the nickle plating is shot and it needs refinishing.
 
Just placed an order for the Flitz, PB Pro-Polish and the Natty's Blue earlier today. I'll be sure to keep everyone posted. We'll see how they come out and hopefully TrueDetailer is mistaken ;)
 
IT WORKED!

First off, I'm extremely impressed on how quickly I recieved my order from poorboysworld.com. My order for the Pro-Polish and Natty's Blue was recieved the very next day after ordering! If it hadn't been for the Flitz not being here and holding me up, it could've been done that day.

I was fairly impressed on what the flitz did to these wheels. As a trial, I tried just using the polish w/o the flitz, but it just wasn't cutting it. I took out the PB Pro-Polish, applied it, and then took it off with the Flitz. I did notice that the Flitz polish appead to be working slightly more effective. Perhaps it was more abrasive? I used the Flitz polish in only a couple of areas were it was pretty bad, other than that I used the PB's. My cousin was very impressed on how the rims turned out and so am I. My cousin and I appreciate everyones help on this in order to get his rims looking like new.

My Tools :D

Hyper-Wash
PB Pro-Polish
Flitz
Flitz Polish
Craftsman Electric Drill

Pictures were takin 2-3 days after they were finished...camera was at the office.

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