Been too busy to finish up these wheels. I asked myself what I would normally use to clean up something this dirty. The answer is steel wool. Got some 0000 and went at these.
Much easier than using sand paper. Not sure why I never read about people using this. Worker faster than sandpaper and didn't remove any paint. In 5 mins per wheel 95% of the remaining grime came out (using 1:1 APC). There are some spots on the back of the spokes that will take more effort - these will never be seen so not worth the effort.
Here's how one of them looked...
A little scrubbing with APC for one area
Used a a 4" pad + M105 on the area I just cleaned with steel wool.
Got a little shine from that. Surprised how much grime came out of that paint after I used steel wool on it.
The faces are pretty well scratched also
Wheel on the right had spokes done with yellow pad + M105, wheel on left not yet. Right is about 90% done. Not the best pic but you can see all the scratches in the wheel on the left.
The amount of dirt that came out of the clear coat from the face of one wheel is amazing. I was using that towel to clean my pad as I worked. Both sides of it were filthy and you can see how the pad looks. And I'm not done. Need smaller pad or ball to get into the tight spaces. (That pad cleaned up very nicely and looks close to new. Will make it dedicated wheel pad.)