I have a 1985 T/A with the 15" spoked wheels.

The wheels on my car have basically been abused all their life; I doubt any of the previous owners even so much as washed them by the way they look.

I've tried to clean them to no end but the gunky brown crap that are all along the edge of the wheel and near the center will not come off. I'm thinking it may not actually be dirt anymore, but scratches that don't come off with washing. In any case, this stuff makes the wheel look grimy and dirty even when they are clean as a whistle.

Anyway, I wanted to know if anyone has ever taken on the task of polishing these types of wheels up like people with IROC wheels do i.e. removing clear coat, sanding, ect.? Is is possible to polish them just like IROC wheels? Will I run into any problems with the spokes of the wheels (by the way, aren't the spokes painted? They don't look the same color as the wheel)?

I really want my wheels to look better than they do now, and no amount of cleaning is gonna make them look better. I just wanted to know if anyone else has tried to clean these old rims up?

Thanks.

P.S. - Here are the wheels I have, if you don't know which ones I am talking about. This is scott's85T/A's car:

Bah... check next post.

 

I can't figure out how to post images.

Just go here: https://www.thirdgen.org/rides/rideimages/photo_(1).jpg

 

You can sand them, but it will take lots and lots of time. Around 4 hours per wheel from what I've heard.

At the dealership they use this suff called Prep Solve to get rid of anything nasty. You may find it at an auto parts store.

 

Strip 'em down w/ aircraft stripper, and yes you will take the paint off the spokes. No biggie. The only real difference if you follow the "polishing your wheels" guide is that you have to do a lot more complicated masking... Otherwise, you can sand and polish the same way. Then repaint the spokes black, or what would look awesome would be the blue that's on your car painted on the spokes. I've always imagined red on mine... just never got around to getting the red, so I redid them in black.

 

You know, I saw a set in red, and wasnt too impressed. I had the same idea, but went with black.

But yeah, strip off the clear with some aircraft paint stripper, then sand and polish. I used the sticky at the top of the page, and let me say, what a tremendous help!
Mine didnt turn out too bad, but they woulda been better if i went in a little more with the sanding. Its a ****ty job, but worth it in the end.

 

I've found that WD-40 is great at taking road gunk off aluminum wheels...

 

I know this thread is old, but I have a question.

Is the area that came painted from factory prone to rust? If possible, I'd rather just keep the "all aluminum" look than repaint it again. However, if it will rust really bad, I guess I will just repaint it to black.

 

Aluminum doesn't rust, but it does corrode.

 

what are you guys repainting your wheels with exactly?

 

I painted the inside part with some high temp black gloss paint from Autozone.

 

i polished my formula wheels and look awesome !
go for it !