Cleaning the Aluminum Alloy Slotted Wheels

I have 2 sets of 15"x 7" Aluminum Alloy slotted wheels ( these are the real deal from the 70's,,,same as used on the TV show version of the car). Back in May of 2007 the place where I had the wheels stored flooded and the the wheels sat in muddy, gunky flood water for a few days. The best I can tell/recall the wheels have been off of a vehicle since some time in the mid to late 80's and in storage before I got them in 2004 and had them stored until recently.

I decided last week to start cleaning the front wheels. I did some searches on the Internet....I decided against using Easy-Off oven cleaner...too harsh....the other search's showed wheels that had very little oxidation to begin with being cleaned.

My lovely wife Amy came to my rescue yet again...she reminded me of the way she used to clean the same type of wheels back in day...it involves Lemon Juice, Vinegar,Cream of Tartar and water....the concoction works! It's the acidity of the food items that make it work!...without causing more damage to your wheel like Easy-Off can.

Here's the recipe:

2 Tablespoons of Lemon Juice

2 Tablespoons of Vinegar

2 Tablespoons of Cream of Tartar

1 Quart of water

Add one Quart of water to a pot,add the Lemon Juice,Vinegar and Cream of Tartar. Mix while bringing the water to a boil. Once mix has started to boil, remove from stove top and allow it to cool enough so that it is safe to use.

Here what I had to do to get the wheels ready for the final buff and polish.

1) Get as much gunk off of the wheels with water and a scrubber brush as possible (high pressure car wash...steam cleaner)

2) Take 220 grit sand paper and sand away till you feel the wheel is getting "smooth". The scratches that are left (you will get some scratches) are removed with wet 2000 grit sand paper later.

3) Apply liberal amounts of the "mix" to the wheel, scrub with a non-scratch pad and/or steel wool (I used both)

4) Rinse the wheel

5) Apply liberal amounts of the "mix" to the wheel again. This time I used a Dremel tool with the 511E Finishing Abrasive Buff Wheel to get to the oxidation that was deep in the wheel.

6) Rinse the wheel

7) Sand with wet 2000 grit paper to get rid of the scratches that may have happened.

8) Use an Aluminum polish (I used Mothers Mag & Aluminum polish) use as directed. You may have to do this "a few" times, as I did, if your wheels are in bad shape like mine was. Each time you polish the wheel , you should get less and less black oxidation on your polishing rag and you will notice the wheel starting to shine and reflect.

This picture shows what I started with and how it ended up. The clean wheel still needs sanded with wet 2000 grit paper to remove some scratches and a couple more polishes before it's done. Yes, it started out looking like the other one...both of these where in the flood that I mentioned in this post.