Wheel Cleaning - After 30 yrs

[Tourmaster]

Currently cleaning up my GS1100EX and having a bit of fun with wheel cleaning. Actually the rear wheel wasn't much of a problem as I think the chain lube spray seems to have protected the original finish. Where I'm finding a bit of a challenge is with the front wheel. A mixture of 30 year old road debris, fork oil and brake pad debris has resulted in some hard to clean staining on the mag spokes.

So far I've tried lifting/cleaning this stuff off with (in no particular order) varsol, WD40, brake cleaner and fine grit polish. I got about 75% of the crap off, but there are still some localized dark spots remaining, that are very stubborn and seemingly baked on. Since I just want to clean the wheels, and not refinish, does anyone have any suggestions as to how to lift those final stains without destroying the paint/finish underneath?

[sedelen]

How timely, just tried to polish up my front rim yesterday, seems you and I have the same problem, for me on my '82 GS1100EZ, the culprit, brake fluid stains from the PO. I've come to the conclusion that I may have to learn to live with it, possibly might try a high speed buffer with some "semi-chrome" and see if that helps. Probably easier just to locate another
wheel on e-bay. I think there may be a plastic coating on the aluminum non painted area. If there is and I remove it, it will take frequent polishing to keep it looking good. I'm going to try some aluminum wheel polish and a
crocus cloth today and see if it improves. If that doesn't work and it continues to really bother me, I'll be looking for another wheel unless someone comes up with the "answer" here.

[gshub]

wheels

all you need is to buy some muckoff it eats grime especialy on wheels and engines
best bit it dont upset my eczemer,skin disease dont help my spelling though.

[sedelen]

all you need is to buy some muckoff it eats grime especialy on wheels and engines
best bit it dont upset my eczemer,skin disease dont help my spelling though.

Muckoff? Never heard of that product.

[gshub]

all you need is to buy some muckoff it eats grime especialy on wheels and engines
best bit it dont upset my eczemer,skin disease dont help my spelling though.

neither had I till i found it at a bike rally being sold cheap when i had my gs motor
stripped and rebuilt in the spring the engineer said he never seen a 30yr old engine so clean
its done 90,000miles a m8 of mine clocked up 40,000 of them dispatch riding it in all weathers .
but i only ride in summer now because of all the salt they put on our roads and my bone cant handle the cold anymore.

[gshub]

cleaner

muc-off USA LLC
8311 chetle AVE
santa fe
CA 90670
USA tel 562 645-9944

[Nessism]

How clean you can get the wheel depends on whether or not the paint is damaged. Brake fluid and other various chemicals, including road salt, tends to eat into the wheel paint and stain the wheel, and no amount of cleaning will remove the reference marks. Dedicated wheel cleaning products are very strong but effective at removing brake dust and road grunge, but again, if the paint is damaged you are stuck.

[sedelen]

How clean you can get the wheel depends on whether or not the paint is damaged. Brake fluid and other various chemicals, including road salt, tends to eat into the wheel paint and stain the wheel, and no amount of cleaning will remove the reference marks. Dedicated wheel cleaning products are very strong but effective at removing brake dust and road grunge, but again, if the paint is damaged you are stuck.

That's pretty much what I thought. The wheel is serviceable, but stained, and I think all the rubbing in the world will not get out the chemical stain left by the brake fluid. I'm going to chip away at it though, I've got nothing to lose in doing so. Such a shame as it could've been easily prevented. Wheels are cheap on E-bay though if I choose to replace it.

[Nessism]

That's pretty much what I thought. The wheel is serviceable, but stained, and I think all the rubbing in the world will not get out the chemical stain left by the brake fluid. I'm going to chip away at it though, I've got nothing to lose in doing so. Such a shame as it could've been easily prevented. Wheels are cheap on E-bay though if I choose to replace it.

I suggest polishing/repainting if you are picky. Any wheels you get on ebay are likely to have the same paint staining concerns as your current wheels.

[pete]

I'm with Ed on this, definitely a good polish if not paint.

Mine went from this:



To this with a wire wheel on my drill:



And I painted mine a little differently to the factory, but you get the idea:




If you're just going to polish, the wire wheel still should work a treat, but you'll need to get something in the corners (I just followed up with wet and dry paper for paint prep). I've yet to do that final polish of the rim so the unpainted area is not as shiny as it should be.

[Tourmaster]

How clean you can get the wheel depends on whether or not the paint is damaged. Dedicated wheel cleaning products are very strong but effective at removing brake dust and road grunge, but again, if the paint is damaged you are stuck.

At this point, I haven't given up. Any of the stains that I've managed to remove from the gray painted areas of the mag, have left the paint behind. Varsol, at this point, seems to work the best, so long as I let it soak for a little while with a wet rag placed over each area. Then rub like hell and the stains will eventually lift without wrecking the paint.

Being the lazy bastard that I am ... just thought one of you experts might have a magic bullet. Have never seen Muc-off, so might shop around locally to see if it, or something like it, is available.

Many thanks, as always, for the feedback, advice and comments.

[sedelen]

I suggest polishing/repainting if you are picky. Any wheels you get on ebay are likely to have the same paint staining concerns as your current wheels.

If you saw my front wheel, you probably say, any wheel on e-bay has got to look much better. Looks like someone sprayed the wheel with brake cleaner and just let it set there to ensure maximum damage. I put a little elbow grease into it today in the form of trying anything to rub out the stain, what I ended up with is a shiny stained rim, but I haven't completely given up on it yet.

[GS ace]

Stained Aluminum

If the damage (which is what it is to me) is that bad, it'll take the use of electricity to rehab the wheel.

[SVSooke]

My wheels where really dirty to

A pic of the original pipes on the bike but you can see the dirt.

This is after a pretty hard cleaning that was starting to remove the gold paint


After more scrubbing and power washing there was still dirt ground into them.They are going to get wet sanded here,with 2000 grit paper.

This is how they looked after polishing and painting them.Didn't have brake fluid stains but the only way mine where ever going to look any good was to bite the bullet and paint them.

[Tourmaster]

SVS ... nice job .... and I certainly haven't ruled out the same eventuality in my case.