Cleaning the Aluminum Alloy Slotted Wheels |
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Zebra 3
Senior Member Joined: 11-February-2012 Location: Topeka, Ks. Status: Offline Points: 392 |
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Posted: 20-June-2012 at 2:23PM |
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Here is a way...not the only way...but the way I was able to clean my Aluminum
Alloy slotted wheels...here's the back story...
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.
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"I deeply admire the men who founded this country, and I think we ought to know more about them and how they lived and the force and courage they had.
Henry Ford. 1926 Brian Conn '76 Torino |
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this should be moved to the How To section as S&H cars are not the only one who use Slots.I'm putting them on my 72 GTS when I can either finds some 15X8's or I can afford to narrow the 9in rear so the 15X10's will fit under the car and not stick out as Homey don't do the airshock bit as that went our in the 70's and latest was the 80's but I want wide meats but tucked inside at stock height.
I sanded mine to remove scratches and nick's and started with 180 on a mini 3" DA sander then kept getting finer then switched to wetsand paper till I reached 1500. After that I started buffing with compound you use to buff car paint with on a 3' mini buffer and wool pad as the high speed buff's the aluminum up alot faster and will make it look like chrome when your done
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1zebra3
Senior Member Joined: 21-December-2011 Location: NEBR Status: Offline Points: 353 |
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I like the way you cut the old tires from the rims as i did this to a bunch of old steel rims i had so i could take them to scrap.
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1zebra3 76 S&H Torino 70 mustang MACH 1 73 MACH 1 79 F-350 (SOLD)DAMN 89 STANG LX COUPE 04 F-150 |
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Zebra 3
Senior Member Joined: 11-February-2012 Location: Topeka, Ks. Status: Offline Points: 392 |
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......If one of the moderators wants to p.m me reference this I will reword it
to be all inclusive and they can make a sticky out of it in the "How to
articles" like yours so that it does'nt get barried pages deep over time.
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"I deeply admire the men who founded this country, and I think we ought to know more about them and how they lived and the force and courage they had.
Henry Ford. 1926 Brian Conn '76 Torino |
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using an electric buffer will work good too to polish it or even a drill with a polishing cone made for polishing metal not one of those things they use to clean wheels but an actual buffing cone
Harbor Freight has a good selection of buffing wheels and are cheap. you get a better ad faster shine from using a power tool vs. hand rubbing. if you want just copy and paste your info onto the thread I made as it all purtains and it's already there.I kinda forgot about that thread I made
Edited by 72 GTS 429 - 21-June-2012 at 12:00PM |
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