Cast Wheel Care

[cbez]

my long hunt for wheels is over I have some vintage Wats coming and I'm wondering if ya'll have any maintenance tips.

I do not want to paint or powdercoat cuz I love the raw look. Luckily they won't see snow/salt and little rain if I can avoid it but still want to keep them looking nice.

[unklpat]

What are vintage wats? Do you have a picture?
Pat

[cbez]

[theunz]

I bead blasted my EMPI 8 spokes and it really cleaned them up nicely. Perhaps a little to clean, but within a couple of months they darkened slightly to a very nice finish. Be advised though, any grease or oil that gets on them will stain. Clear coating might help keep them cleaner, but so far I haven’t felt the need to do so. Remember you will need to mask off any polished parts to protect it, and even then you might have to repolish the edges.

[theunz]

You might be able to see the difference in these two photos.

[cbez]

Thinking of doing a vapor hone just to get a nice clean starting point, but I definitely don't want them ultra bright.

[rwmann]

A clear water pressure sprayer works well to clean up cast alloy rims, and elsewhere under the chassis.

Once clean, cast alloys collect brake dust better than clear coat, but that’s real life in the fast lane.

[todd lorber]

I have a neighbor that swears by soaking aluminum in lemon juice/water or vinegar. I have seen some SU's that he did and they were impressive.
I do concur that you will probably want to clear the spokes to keep them clean, and possibly even the lips unless you are ok with polishing them from time to time.

[redroadster]

You should get them filled with nitrogen gas , it eliminates moisture from compressed air

[cbez]

Well I got them in, opened up the rear slightly to clear the front hubs, now cleaning out all the corrosion and crud in the spokes.

Not sure how I want to tackle the front yet, I don't want to do anything really aggressive that will affect the original cast texture.

[mikeb]

Eagle One makes a product called "Etching MAG wheel cleaner." It's a pretty inexpensive solution.I have an old set of vintage American Racing Wheels and it workks well to clean them up. But due to the nature af cast aluminum, you will have to clean them up somewhat often.

[cbez]

they were fairly crusty especially inside the spokes. definitely wishing I had just blasted them but live and learn lol. BTW if anyone knows about dating these--would be interesting to find out when they were made. I can't find any date codes on them. I don't think they're too old because they're in fairly good shape.

this is AFTER a first pass. embedded brake dust that rusted, plus more black oxidation of some kind. I have Napa aluminum wheel wash which is a very strong acid but soak + agitate with stiff brush would just turn the oxidation black and basically highlight it.


lots of dremel cleaning and rounds of the acid wash later:


still figuring out the fronts. there are some black oxidation spots but I don't want to dremel them and potentially damage the cast texture or leave a mark.



am thinking of ways to clean aggressively without damaging the finish...

[cbez]

ok done ish for now. They looked good from 10' but had a lot of brake dust and crud embedded in the casting. None of the chemical cleaners or scrubbing really wanted to do anything (steel wool and aluminum foil would hit it, but slowly).



ended up doing a light dremel abrasive wheel just to take the top oxide layer and embedded crap off which luckily didnt do much to the cast finish. then followed up with mother's polish on the power cone. I still need to polish the rims but waiting on that.

[cbez]

made it back. I'm one of the dumb dumbs on here who actually daily drives this thing.

I have some better lug nuts coming and I'm going to try Sharkhide as a protectant.

[cbez]

well definitely need wheel studs on the back. for some reason I thought the fronts would be the issue.

the weights the tire shop used hit my front calipers ever so slightly. going to have them redo with low profile weights and/or move them slightly