Cleaning rust off wheels

[Langcow1]

I just had a set of good-condition, used wheels installed and my sad, tattered wheels are now sitting in my backyard. Two of them aren’t too bad but the other two are pretty rusty. I’m thinking it’d be good to clean the set up and save them for some snow tires some day (I don’t live where it snows but I like to go to the snow occasionally). Any suggestions on how to fix the two rusty ones?

 

[Langcow1]

Here’s the worst one

 

[Jensen735]

There is one really cheap way to get rid of the rust. All you need is a tin foil and water. It takes some time and effort scrapping off the rust, of course, but it's working.

 

[Devbot]

... aren't those aluminum?

 

[Brian.]

Here’s the worst one

Aluminum does oxidize, but doesn't "rust" (need steel/iron for that). That looks like failed clearcoat, and yes they're painted, where all sorts of brake dust trash has soaked underneath. As for fixing them up, it's the same no matter what metal... take it all the way down past the corrosion/damage and then protect again (powedercoat or paint). The normal way is with a sandblaster, but pretty much any paint stripper will remove the lions share, it's just a lot of elbow grease... the better the desired results, the more effort involved.

Clearly, you're not going to do just 1 or 2 wheels... all of them ought to match and you're not going to be able to match what the factory did. In all honesty, it's almost certainly going to be cheaper to buy nicer wheels than to fix what you have. Old OEM wheels like those tend to hover in the $50/per range where I am, so if you need 2, you'd be out $100...

 

[Too Stroked]

I'm going to guess that at some point in the history of that wheel, the brakes went "metal on metal." When that happens, hot iron particles from the brakes imbed themselves in the clearcoat and then rust over time.

As others have said, rectifying that mess is not going to be easy and the results are not going to be great. That said, you can make the wheel look better. My suggestion for the first step is to get some Iron-X or similar iron decontamination product. Follow the instructions, but leave the product on the surface for longer since you have far more iron contamination than normal. It may even take several applications and rinses. BTW, it will help if you remove the wheel weights.

Once you get the iron particles out, you can polish the surface with a metal polish. You'll probably need a rotary buffer and an aggressive pad to really get through the mess caused by the iron particles though.

Finally, you'll need to clear coat the surface to prevent the (now fully exposed) aluminum surface from oxidizing.

Sound like too much work? It does to me. I'd just buy some used wheels for $50 each.

 

[spartacus]

you are going to use em as winter wheels or as extra set.Air craft paint remover, wire wheel on a drill or rotary, then sand paper, buff, clean em with denatured alcohol. Wheel paint, color of you choice. 3 coats of clear. Wheels will look much neicer.

 

[Langcow1]

Ok thanks everybody. I figure they don’t have to be great, just better, and then I’ll probably paint them black.
Here’s the new wheels I just put on: