Wow, these wheels are white on the inside too!

gokstate74

I have too much time on my hands apparently, but after 47k miles, I decided to take the wheels off and clean the brake dust and about 20 years of road grime/dirt off. I wasn't sure if it would work (see the before photos). I tried a few things--blue dawn dish soap, simple green, but the absolute best thing that cut right through it was dawn power dissolver. I went through 4 bottles roughly to get the crap out. Used a medium stiff brush for the rim and tried some old toothbrushes down in the grooves. As you can see, the grooves remained mostly black. I have no idea if that's factory or not, but given the heat here, I called it good the way I had it. Reshined and polished the exteriors of the wheels and mounted them back. I don't have pics back on the car yet, but it's kind of cool to see the white poking through the 5 star openings.

P.S. If anyone wonders the best way to pry off the center caps without breaking them--a paint can opener worked really well for me--screwdriver...not so much.

before....



after

TWF_John

Wow, those look great.

Ron, who reads these forums often, shared another alternative approach with me via email.

John, the best thing I have found for cleaning the back of wheels especially those with bad cv joints and their heavy grease is Fast Orange Hand Cleaner. Discovered it years ago after getting dirty with all the other cleaners and the hard work and then going in the house and using the Fast Orange hand cleaner to clean me. Thought was if it works so good on me why not the rims.

I apply some of the Fast Orange liberally on a wash cloth and wipe the rim with the wash cloth and rinse off. Its quick and easy.

twocarnuts

Cool. Thanks for sharing..

gokstate74

Wow, those look great.

Ron, who reads these forums often, shared another alternative approach with me via email.

John, the best thing I have found for cleaning the back of wheels especially those with bad cv joints and their heavy grease is Fast Orange Hand Cleaner. Discovered it years ago after getting dirty with all the other cleaners and the hard work and then going in the house and using the Fast Orange hand cleaner to clean me. Thought was if it works so good on me why not the rims.

I apply some of the Fast Orange liberally on a wash cloth and wipe the rim with the wash cloth and rinse off. Its quick and easy.

Thanks for sharing. I saw some of that stuff at walmart the other day--will have to try sometime.