Tips for rim clean up???

[mortation]

Anyone have some pointers for cleaning rims that look like this:

Nasty huh? Sand paper? What grit? Would it be possible to sand off the black powder coat as well and polish them all nice and shiny?

I tried some scrub pads, brillo, Eagle one, etc. Helps but not doing the best of jobs

 

[tconroy]

Are they rusted? how about pitted.You might want to try some naval jelly and then follow up with some mothers mag and aluminum polish or just have them sand blasted and start over.It's hard to tell from that pic what to do.I dont think you want to use sand paper on them.It will leave scratches.Just my opinion.I have never had to do anything like that before.

 

[mortation]

Naval jelly is what I used on the bolts to get them cleaned up. But I dont think you are supposed to use that on Aluminum. Its been a while I will have to check.

 

[mortation]

Oh and they are not rusted or pitted. Its just road grime brake residue backed right on

 

[Billy Ricks]

Start with 600 grit wet and dry. It will wear itself out to a much finer grit. Use the slick pieces of sandpaper to finish. Polish with a cotton wheel on a drill with polishing compound. The painted portion of the rim is more of an epoxy than powder coating I believe. Unless you intend to repaint it don't mess with it. I did polish up a set of GSXR wheels by hand. Had to go through the layer of paint and heavy sand cast finish on the spokes. If you have the time and mindset you could sand through what's left of the paint after stripping. Beadblasting should work too.

 

[Guest]

You can wet sand them with some #600 paper and then use a buffing wheel on a drill or die grinder and polishing compound to bring back the shine.

 

[Tom MLC]

Use waterless hand cleaner goop. Yeah, that's right. You know how good a job it does getting grease & grime off your hands, right? Well it works great on your wheels, too. If you need to help it out, use a little scotch brite. It will take the road grime & chain residue right off. Best of all, it shouldn't hurt the paint (the scotch brite might scuf a little).

 

[txironhead]

If you want them completely bare aluminum, the tire, bearings, rotors, everything needs to come off. Then get your water hose ready, and saturate the entire rim with Easy Off Oven Cleaner, make sure you get the original formula. Once the rim is saturated, wait about a minute then hose it off. You don't want it on there too long because it does fun (note sarcasm here) things to aluminum. This should get all of the crud and maybe a little paint off.

If you want to see what EO does to aluminum, spray it all over a foot long piece of aluminum foil, wad it up in a ball, and set it on the concrete OUTSIDE away from anything you value. Cheap entertainment and an interesting party trick, takes a few minutes though.

After the rim is clean, some aerosol Auto Spray Strip from Wal-Mart will take the paint off, but it will take more than one try so be patient. I recommend buying some of those wooden house paint stir sticks to scrape the bubbling paint off with. Hose down and let dry completely between sprays. A brass bristle brush will help get those stubborn areas. If you have access or money, have them bead-blasted instead.

Once the rims are down to the bare metal, you have a few options: What I did on my Shadow was paint the rims with Dupli-Color Engine Enamel, Brushed Aluminum color. Looks like fresh satin-cast rims and lasts a long time. You can mask off the outer edges, paint them black, remove the masking and polish the edges carefully by sanding with 600, 800, 1000, 1500, then 2000 grit polish (some people skip the 800 and 1000 grits). After the 2000 grit switch to medium grit polishing compound and a Dremel or drill mounted polishing wheel, then fine grit, then finish it off with Jeweler's Rouge for nice coloring and seal it with a good metal polish. Or you can paint them completely black or the color of the bike for an interesting look.

If the polishing step seems like too much hassle, look in the yellow pages for a semi truck detailing shop, they're experts at polishing metal. I've seen them resurrect rims I wouldn't have given $10 for. And they can polish the whole rim if you want. Personally, I like the Dupli-color route because it's quick, cheap, looks good and cleans easily with soap and water.

Word of caution: whenever you're sanding on aluminum, wear a dust mask! Aluminum dust is not friendly to lungs.

 

[RJz1100E]

Simple Green, full strength. Spray it on, soak down real good, let it work a bit and maybe scrub brush. Repeat untill shiny and clean. Works like a champ for me.

 

[JTsGS650]

I've used medium (#3) steel wool on mine with good results.

 

[Steve]

Simple Green, full strength. Spray it on, soak down real good, let it work a bit and maybe scrub brush. Repeat untill shiny and clean. Works like a champ for me.

Similar results with Bike Brite. \\/


.

 

[Calvin Blackmore]

there was a fabulous article by Joe Minton or one of the gurus of yesteryear in a an old bike mag.

The redid a gs 1150 and part of the process was to redo the cast wheels
the very same as your design and mine

they used a form of media blasting but i dont think it was sand balsting
likely something softer

anyway the wheel we beautiful after being done up

personally I use varsol to clean my wheels thne use a small scrub brush.

there is a post on here somewhere from a guy that did up his wheels painted and polished I looked bu cant find it

 

[txironhead]

Glass bead blasting works wonderfully on cast aluminum, makes it look like a fresh cast piece and provides a great base for painting or polishing. I've heard baking soda blasting works good too but I don't have any experience with it and no one locally does it.

 

[mixongw]

If you don't want to attack the aluminum, use walnut shell media.

 

[mixongw]

I cleaned my shiny aluminum part (outside rim) while still mounted on the bike. Put it on the center stand. When polishing the front wheel, apply some weight to the rear of the bike to clear the front wheel from the ground. Another option is to use a floor jack under the exhaust to raise the front tire free. I used an angle grinder with a polishing wheel attached. Just apply enough pressure to the rim to make the wheel spin. Do the same thing to the rear (in neutral). I used an aluminum compound.

 

[petelardo]

If you want to see paint stripper in action, I found this photo online:

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f191/eimoytiana/95 GS500/499e3a7d.jpg

That will give you an idea of what you're faced with if you strip the wheels with a chemical stripper. Aircraft paint stripper WILL burn your skin and eyes, not to mention your lungs if you inhale it... Use it ONLY in a well-ventilated area, with good runner gloves, and whatever else you need to protect yourself (goggles / eye protection, etc.)... The guy holding the can worked with gloves on, but took them off just before the picture was taken...

Keep in mind that the stripper will RUIN any plastic surfaces it contacts; if you don't protect your eyes, and you're wearing contact lenses while you work, it WILL melt the contact lenses onto your eyeballs if you get careless...

Bottom line is, the stuff is effective but NASTY... you've been warned!

Other have suggested alternatives; choose wisely, and let us know how this turns out...

 

[Red Rocket GS1100]

I used brake dust cleaner

I used brake dust cleaner

I used an off the shelf tire cleaner and it worked great. That and a choreboy (yellow cloth kind) and all the grime came off with no scratching.
The toughest spots were the spokes. But with the tire cleaner, which is basically brake dust cleaner, and some elbow grease they came out good. In the military they taught us to use the least destructive method first.
That's just my opinion

 

[Guest]

My rims were pretty nasty, too:

I used hand cleaner to get all the gunk off (good tip, Tom).
Then I used aircraft stripper on the entire wheel to get the paint off the rim and the clearcoat off the bare aluminum. I then sanded and polished the bare aluminum ring. Then masked and painted the wheel. I used gloss black engine enamel. The wheels turned out great!

 

[mixongw]

I used an off the shelf tire cleaner and it worked great. That and a choreboy (yellow cloth kind) and all the grime came off with no scratching.
The toughest spots were the spokes. But with the tire cleaner, which is basically brake dust cleaner, and some elbow grease they came out good. In the military they taught us to use the least destructive method first.
That's just my opinion

I could go really political with that last statement!

 

[Guest]

If you plan on painting, use a primer first. Make sure the wheel is completely clean and grease free. I used acetone to clean the areas just before painting. I didn't have any pics of the primed wheels, but here are some pics of the rotors I painted: