Cleaning oxidation off basket weaves

[svtman]

I just bought a set of basket weaves off a SLO and they are fairly oxidized. The clear coat has mostly come off and I want to scrub them down with an SOS pad or something and then recoat them. Does anybody have suggestions for removing the rest of the clear coat, polishing, etc? These are going to be my winter rims, but I still don't want them to be nasty.

 

[shojuan]

Well clean them with the Eagle One Mag cleaner. The stuff with the green label that's meant for non-finished aluminum wheels. It's a fairly aggressive acid cleaner. Use a wheel brush to get in all the nooks. That should help get them cleaned up quite a bit. As far a stripping the paint off, can't help you there. I hate my weaves so much, I think I'll just clean them and spray directly over the old finish with duplicolor spray paint. Or I'll just leave the brake dust on there and hate them some more.

 

[jelloslug]

The clear finish is very tough, try a spray on aircraft stripper (the gel stuff slides off too fast). Thay actually don't look that bad cleaned up.

 

[edmontonsho]

You can always paint them black like those found on some 90's. It would make it much easier to keep clean in the winter.

 

[svtman]

Well, I am going to try some SOS pads to clean the heavy oxidation (more like corrosion) off the wheels and maybe even power sand off the clearcoat as there is not much left. I will then try to buff them up, or will end up painting them if this fails. Anything will be better than they are now!