Noddaz
Noddaz PowerDork
9/24/22 3:19 p.m.

Damn you brake dust!  Damn you all to h*ll!

Just what do youse guys (and gals) use to clean painted alloy wheels on cars these days?  Are these still soft brushes that go on the end of drills?  Do people use acid (gasp) wheel cleaner still?

Inquiring minds want to clean their wheels.

914Driver
914Driver MegaDork
9/24/22 3:31 p.m.

I just did some for my 900.  #0000 steel wool and Dawn on front, Awesome! cleaner and #00 for years of brake dust.

But I'm not going to Pebble Beach.
 

Ranger50
Ranger50 MegaDork
9/24/22 3:32 p.m.

1320 street shine tire and wheel cleaner.

Before:

After:

adam525i
adam525i Dork
9/24/22 5:15 p.m.

Meguiars Hot Rims wheel and tire cleaner has worked well on some wheels with baked on track pad brake dust for me, I think I'll add some #0000 to the mix to see if that gets the last of it off like mentioned above (and try Dawn as well, I feel like that is becoming my Frank's hot sauce for me, I use that E36 M3 on everything!).

84FSP
84FSP UberDork
9/24/22 7:26 p.m.

The best thing I have found is Sonax.  That plus a good handwash and wax make everything swanky.

93gsxturbo
93gsxturbo UltraDork
9/24/22 8:33 p.m.

Sonax fo sho.  Get the big jug online and divvy out into smaller squirt bottles.  

ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter)
ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) Dork
9/24/22 9:37 p.m.

Sonax fallout cleaner; amazing stuff for brake dust! I discovered it recently and immediately wondered where it had been my whole life. After using it, I realized that I had never actually fully cleaned some trackday wheels I bought in 2014 and still have, I'd only partially cleaned them! A short while ago I was contemplating stripping and refinishing the wheels because they looked crappy. I used the Sonax and was like, "huh...so that's what those wheels look like clean, and they don't need refinishing!"

Tony Sestito
Tony Sestito UltimaDork
9/24/22 10:25 p.m.

This stuff:


It works really well. Their Ultimate Wheel Cleaner is also great. That one changes color when it reacts with dirt/brake dust. 

I used to use Hot Rims all the time, but the last time I used it, it stained the wheels. That was not fun. 

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