Stains on aluminum wheels

J

joestang

New member
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I've tried Mother's Mag & Billet polish, and while the Billet polish *helps* it still leaves behind this shadow.



Basically these spots come from when it rains. If there is any dirt/brake dust on the wheels the water picks it up and sits in a puddle right on the lip of the wheel. If it's allowed to dry like that you get the end result you see in the picture. Most of the spots come out with alot of elbo grease and the billet polish, but some are NOT coming out with this product.



Any ideas?



Thanks guys, I know I'm a newb but I promise I wont be a nuisance. :xyxthumbs
 
I had the same problem with mine but mine were like water streaks. I tried just about everything to get them off and just when I thought I got the job done I could come back and the sun would hit the wheel just right and I could still see the stains. I bought two of my TT2s used and one had a lot of pits in the lip and just plain looked bad. I figured one day that I would use that wheel for practice. I pulled out the sand paper and wetsanded the wheel to get the pits out. Once I got them out I polished it up with some Mothers Billet Polish and I was shocked to see how great the wheel looked. Tomorrow I'll go out and take a picture so you can see. They look better than what they did when they were new, almost like chrome.



The centers on yours look like they are chrome.
 
Yeah the spokes are chrome and the lip is polished aluminum, which is stupid, imo.



Can you point me to a write-up or some tips on how to do the wet sanding? Never done it before and dont wanna mess up my $400/piece wheels. :aww:
 
I was going to suggest something similar after thinking about it today. I don't really care for the power ball but I've liked using a polishing wheel that you can get at Sears and Home Depot. They come in a kit usually with some compounds and they just attach to your drill and you can use some metal polish and polish the lips. They usually help a lot and the results are better than doing it by hand in most cases. That might take the stains out and it's worth a try before trying to wetsand. Wet sanding isn't hard to do but it takes some time.



If you decide to try the power ball or polishing wheel I would tape off the chrome centers on your wheels. Most aluminum polishes say not to use them on chrome. I poweder coated the center of my wheels just a few months ago and I tape them off with some painters tape to protect them when I wet sand or to keep from getting metal polish on them.
 
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