Extremely dirty mags

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terranoboy

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Hi guys, i'm now moving onto my mags which are really dirty with years of bakes on brake dust. They are alloy mags and i have used an abrasive material to scratch some of it off but i'm still unhappy with the results. Has anyone got any tips on how to remove this crud from my wheels? Cheers. BTW i have used a couple of mag cleaners too little success. Will i need them professionally polished?
 
this may be something to consider and worth a try (maybe you can post a pic) if the wheels are too damaged..
lol at the title of this thread :D
Meguiars Brilliant Solutions Wheel Polishing Kit, Meguiars G3400, metal wheel polishing kit, polish aluminum wheels
autogeek_2272_282670399
 
^Ha, since Al Gore invented the internet I haven't looked at many.

Acid wheel cleaners work well on mag wheels, but will probably require polishing to get the look you want. Something like Visitor posted should help a lot
 
Have you tried any iron removers - they may help in breaking down the embedded brake dust?
 
You could try some brass wool, it doesn't scratch but will scrub.
 
A picture would help. Are you still dealing with built on crud, or are you just not happy with the shine on the wheels.
 
Hi there, will post a pic up but i'm still dealing with the baked in brake dust before i try to shine!!!!
 
How do i insert an image? It says it needs a url link but the image is in my downloads folder?
 
You may have to go aggressive and use steel or brass wool. I've had some success with using orange pumice hand cleaner also. Some of those old uncoated mag wheels can be really porous and really hold on to that build up. Plastic putty knife or plastic scrapper if you must.
 
What a let down! Title is so misleading! Was hoping for some extremely dirty magazines! Lol sorry just had to! :)
 
terranoboy said:
How do i insert an image? It says it needs a url link but the image is in my downloads folder?
Click to expand...

Take a look at these threads.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...d-photo-into-your-autogeek-photo-gallery.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...age-your-photo-gallery-into-your-message.html

This one on resizing your photos BEFORE uploading them. Which you REALLY want to do.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...our-photos-easy-thumbnails-free-software.html

I've never used the program Mike talked about in that one though. I've used Thumbs Plus forever, like 15 years or more (for batch processing). But these days you have plenty of ways to resize photos, and do batch processing, including an entire folder from direct within Windows. It's really easy from Windows to make all your files ready, then just upload them to your gallery.

Also... you gallery can stay private, or public... however you want it. Sort of a 'drop box', or Google Drive... except it only works with jpg files. You can even send friends and family, links to files and/or folders. :)

Video in this one.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...30-how-upload-photos-autogeek-proper-way.html


The powers that be here at Autogeek have done us a HUGE service and allow us (as Forum Members) to upload as many photos to our Gallery as we want. There is no worry of broken links, no worry of 'handles' showing up without a file, and NO worry of having to pay for storage space. How cool is that!?!?!?!:dblthumb2:
 
LOL sorry to disappoint ya :p and thanks for the instructions, i follow them but the page goes all glitchy so i am unable to upload a photo. Well i just used a whole bottle of armor all wheel cleaner and it got rid of some of the brake dust but the rest is reaaallllyyy baked in lol so im just going to stick with these results as i'm reasonably happy :) thanks for the answers everyone!
 
The best wheel cleaner I have used is the Sonax wheel cleaner plus. On my son's car they were pretty bad with one I would guess as bad as yours it had a caliper freeze and he drove it quite a while like that. It took some time but after a few applications and a small medium stiff brush we finally got all clean. He actually couldn't believe how good they looked. But honestly without the iron dissolving capabilities of the Sonax (also used some BDX which worked almost as good) we would never of been able to get the results we did. I wish I would of thought to take some before and after pics.
 
thanks i may look into that product. but if i cant manage to get all my brake dust out, it wont corrode the mags will it?
 
Ancient1 said:
The best wheel cleaner I have used is the Sonax wheel cleaner plus. On my son's car they were pretty bad with one I would guess as bad as yours it had a caliper freeze and he drove it quite a while like that. It took some time but after a few applications and a small medium stiff brush we finally got all clean. He actually couldn't believe how good they looked. But honestly without the iron dissolving capabilities of the Sonax (also used some BDX which worked almost as good) we would never of been able to get the results we did. I wish I would of thought to take some before and after pics.
Click to expand...

:iagree:

Sonax, BDX, Rupes, P21S. I like the Sonax and BDX best. Do you already have a plan for polishing the face of the wheels?
 
One of the best over the counter wheel cleaners is Meguiar's DUB cleaner. It's an iron dissolving cleaner like Sonax, only a LOT cheaper. Heck... sometimes you can find it on sale BOGO (or darned near that) at Advance Auto Parts.

Then as has been mentioned, an acid based cleaner. Just have to be most careful on non coated rims, and especially bare aluminum rims.

Although... if you're doing a deep clean, you're also probably going to do a polish afterwards.

Meguiar's D140 Wheel Brightener (acid based) and D143 Non-Acid Wheel Cleaner are both affordable (because you are buying by the gallon) as well as very effective, (because you can dilute them to the strength that works for you). :)

Do make sure though when you order D140 that you order heavy duty, acid safe sprayers. If you don't... it'll start dissolving the metal ball in the sprayer as soon as you pump it, and it may not even last till you get all 4 wheels done! :eek: (If it does... it will not pump next time, I assure you that.) :rolleyes:
 
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