Cleaning Bare Aluminum Wheels

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Crispy2001

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Have a set of Rims that I restored last summer and ran last winter.
Here is the rim before picture.
Here is a picture of small test section (pie shaped section near the wheel weight and to the right).
I used Flitz Aluminum PreClean to get the tough winter crud off. Polished with a Sisal Wheel and Tripoli (Brown) compound. Hand polished with Mothers Billet Polish.
Lot of work so far and still have a ways to go to get to acceptable level.
Question is what to coat the polished aluminum with (after properly prepped)?
Last time I used Opti-Coat 2.0 (had some left over) and it was toast about 3 weeks into the winter.
The rims were oxidizing and black specs were hard to remove.
I'm thinking clear coat vs Poli-Seal and wax.
Any thoughts or experiences?
 
It may have been difficult getting the residues off those intricate surfaces well enough for the Opti-Coat to bond. OTOH, I've never used OC 2.0 on bare metal.

Clear coat is your best bet, you're going to need to get the metal really clean though--and use 2K clear--wear a respirator.
 
Unless you set the bar low the only way to an acceptable level is to change your process and product selection.
 
Tried 2K clear in aerosal can. Put on too thick and got tons of orange peel. Too hard to sand and buff. Had to strip off. The oils left by the polishing compounds are hard to tell if completely removed. So far have tried Optimum Poli-Seal, Collinite 845, Opti-Seal and Wolfgang Metalwerks concourse metal sealant. One rim is in final stage polishing and am going to test a few degreasers/cleaners to remove the oils and then do a side by side application.
 
Use plain ol' isopropyl alcohol to remove the oils left behind by the polishes.
 
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