The other day I was trying to get rid of some stains from my honeycomb rims
and my friend told me to use some oven cleaner to get rid of them, He told me he had tried it before and that it worked well on his truck. So ok I go ahead and try it , and far from cleaning my tires now they all have this grayish layer. I've tried everything , toothpaste, aluminum wheel cleaner, boiling water,alcohol. degreasant, but I just cant get rid of the stains.In some lil spots the chrome is gone, but in others, when I clean them the stains seem to dissapear ,but then when they dry out they come up again. If anybody knows something that could help, please tell me , I would try anything.

 

The clearcoat is probably what got damaged. It can be removed with Auto stripper from Walmart. But then you will have to sand/polish/buff the aluminum on the rim and that takes a while to do.

 

Oven cleaner has a small percentage of acid in it. So, it sounds like it ate part of the finish off the wheels because acid and metal don't mix well. If the stains are coming back after they dry out, you probably destroyed the finish of the wheel inadvertantly. Automotive wheel cleaners such as Eagle One will do the same thing if you aren't careful, that is why the directions say to test a small area prior to application. Granted, they usually don't have as much of a percentage of acid, but with oven cleaner you should wear rubber gloves and it eats materials that have been heated and baked on to the surface in your oven. You might be able to use oven cleaner on a cast finish such as a accessory bracket, but I've never been brave enough to try it on wheels.

Sorry to be the one to tell you that the finish is probably destroyed. The only way to correctly 'fix' the problem is to have the wheel refinished.

Time to give your buddy a whooping!

 

And think about getting a few smarter friends!

 

My borther in law used oven cleaner to get yellow paint of my sisters escape, and It didnt hurt the paint at all it might be becuase of the metal maybe

 

Yeah I used on my exhaust too and it didnt do any damage, thats what kinda made me confident about using it.but Oh well, you guys know if is possible to rechrome my wheel, even if they have gold centers? (Im assuming theres only one way to do that , and that is by submerging them in the actual chrome)

 

I agree.

 

Your wheels are not chrome. They are cleared aluminum. The only way to fix them, is to strip the rest of the clear and polish them. After that, they can be recleared if you wish, but I would not suggest that. I do polishing and could do them for you depending on your location. Hope this helps you out.

 

OK, obviously you have the polished trim ring, and you have the painted honeycomb section.

If the trim ring is now damaged, I'd sand and polish it out. That trim ring is fairly easy to work on, and it shouldn't be too bad to polish. You'll have to polish it with some billet polish ever now and then depending on how often you drive it, but it's not as time consuming as the first time you actually sand and polish.

For the honeycomb portion, I'd just scuff/sand it a little, tape of the hub and trim ring and spray it with some new paint.

As for your friend, tell hime the over cleaner worked great, and to repay him, you'll share a tip you learned. Tell him that 200 grit sandpaper will really bring out the shine on his paint!!!

 

Never use billet or any other metal polishes (i.e. mothers, flitz, etc.) after spending the time to polish correctly. All you need is a little carnuba wax when the car is washed & waxed. Those suppossed polishes will destroy your hard work. They are more course than the compound used to get the high shine.

 

Congrats! You have a PERFECT reason to strip down your wheels and re-do them! I, myself, have procrastinated on this project for a long time. Wish mine looked like crap. Mine look just good enough after they're washed to say, "Well, I'll get around to polsihing them soon, but they look pretty good the way they are now."

 

Ok , I'm still paying for my trans am, and Im not done restoring it yet(just need upholstery on the drivers seat and the hood needs some paint) so Im not planning to spend a lot of my wheels right now ,I just want them to look decent for now, and then when is time to take care of every little single detail, then I'll have em stripped and refinished.So for now I think I'm gonna go for the 1st option and polish them.

 

Ok, that's true. ...and false.

If you take the time to sand and polish (using the appropriate compounds and such) to make your wheels look absolutely PERFECT, then yes, "technically" those popular polishes will only dull the shine as they are in fact relatively coarse. Using the carnuba wax to protect the now polished but unclearcoated aluminum will work.

I tried this. It worked for awhile. until you finally let your diligence slide just once on the waxing and the aluminum starts to dull and oxidize. Then the only way to get that PERFECT shine back is to re-compound.

For real world applications, and my monster stack of show trophies can back me up on this: ....polish correctly once. Sanding, compounding etc. It's gonna take all weekend if you're not a pro. But it's worth it. Wax when finished. Then a few times a year I'll hit it with the Mother's billet polish. Used a few times a year I CAN NOT tell any dulling. It takes me maybe an hour a few times a year to do this. Then once a year, typically in the spring, I'll take the buffer and white jewelers finish compound to the wheels. I'd put my wheels "shine" up against all the but 100% absolute PERFECT 1000 point proffesional jobs.

....I might add that for a daily driver, clear coat is really the only way to fly. Any method other than clear coat is just too much effort for the short amount of time unprotected aluminum stays "shiny"!!!

 

I forgot to mention that the honeycomb part is not damaged, The guy that I got it from didnt drive it a lot so the centers are in real good shape. The chorme part had some stains on them and it was then when I screwed up. Thats what makes me think about have them refinished.

 

i used oven cleaner to get spray paint off of a car once and it worked great, kinda weird how it removed only the spray paint. id say strip em and polish them.

 

Dude, you can "refinish" them yourself for about $20. Just strip off the clear with aircraft cleaner, sand down the aluminum with 320/320 wet/400/400 wet and then buff with emery then again with tripoli and you're done! Be sure not to strip any clear off the painted crosslace section unless you plan on re-painting it!!! If it's OK, just leave that part alone ... or you can strip the clear off, re-paint yourself and then re-clear it at home, too!