Aluminium cleaning

[Hoolio]

Well I'm still refurbing my spare wheels but finally getting towards the end. I'm going to be leaving the rim polished ali but they were in really poor condition and where they've been kerbed and had the old lead weights attached it's etched black which although I've thrown just about everything at I can't budge it all. Does anyone know a sure fire product to remove this before I chuck them over the fence? I'm beginning to hate them.

[clee]

You will struggle to get it out I'm afraid .
It has stained , the same way it would by anodising .Only way to get rid is to remove metal .

[Hoolio]

Ahh, was afraid that was the case, managed to file/sand much of it off but Dremmel and what ever i can get to fit here I come.

[clee]

Get the wheel in the air with the engine running and you'll have your own little/big lathe ;) get some wet and dry and let the GTT do the hard work :agree:

Mind those fingers mind :laugh:

[Hoolio]

I have thought about that but thoughts of J510 heading off into the village on her lonesome would probably become all too real:)

[clee]

You wanna see Mr Scoff doing a fuel map in the garage :scared:

[Hoolio]

:-)

Actually thinking about it I don't give a toss about the berlingo and that's four stud though I'll probably be know as fingers afterwards, hmmm.

[diggerdog36]

Shame you weren't closer to me, I put mine in the wheel washer then in the Ultra-sonic bath at work, that got mine clean.........mind you, it is for aircraft wheels and cost over £1,500,000.....so you'd expect it to!

[michael tierney]

grit blasting:)

[clee]

Hmmmmm ....no not really .He wants a polished rim .

[Hoolio]

Thanks for the help peeps, as always. As Lee said I really wanted some kind of solution to spot clean the rim as I've done much of the work. I would have done some of the above to the wheels before I started but initially just wanted to see what I could do to wheels I was going to scrap (they were green with algea) and have now invested so much time, effort and money after five layers of primer I have to plough on. They'll be good, just not perfect:(

[Hoolio]

Finally got around to spraying these with topcoat over the weekend and then laquer yesterday. Unfortunately I put my faith in Halfords own "clear laquer" with fairly horrendous results. It's absolutely sh*te stuff with runs and bubbles all over the place, i'm no expert but have avoided stuff like that whilst primering and topcoat.
Can anyone recommend a good laquer in a tinny please.

Also I've sprayed them in a nice metallic charcol and the laquer has really darkened it back and dulled out the sparkle almost completely, will polishing bring this back up?

[Junglist]

Hmmmmm ....no not really .He wants a polished rim .
lol ,