amazed by cleaner

[grumpyvette]

I don,t know about most of you guys/gals but I hate cleaning aluminum wheels, the crud, brake dust, crusted grime, oil, its baked on ground in and it usually takes about 1/2 hour per wheel to look showroom new and you usually need abrasive polish and lots of elbow grease to get them looking right!
Id have taken before/after pics but ID never admit to letting the corvettes wheels get into that condition

being lazy at times and open for suggestions I stopped at PUBLIX super market and was taking to a fellow, car nut at the magazine rack, the subject came up and he suggested
SUPERIOR FORMULA 23 HEAVY DUTY INDUSTRIAL CLEANER & DEGREASER
"BLACK BOTTLE/JUG, & YELLOW LETTERING"
a scotchbrite pad and hot water in a bucket and a semi-stiff paint brush gets his wheels clean...........HMMMMM???
well I find the stuff in a gallon jug in the cleaner isle and I buy a dozen scotch brite pads thinking this ios going to be another 2-3 hour P.I.T.A. but IM willing to try new things......
WOW the brake dust an d caked on crud rubs off with almost no effort at all after I soaked the wheels down several times with strait solvent cleaner ....and worked---BARELY on it with a scotch brite pad and a constant stream of solvent spray...The hose removed about 90% after the first go round, the second time I really soaked the wheels and used a towel, the whole process took about 30-40 minutes and it looks like new!
DAMN IM KEEPING SOME IN THE SHOP FROM NOW ON!!!
Quote:
Grump, do those scotch brite pads not knock the finish down? does it hurt clear coat??

the answer to that naturally depends on how hard you press and what wheels your using,
I don,t know if my wheels HAVE NOW or EVER HAD clear coat, on my wheels, and I barely press down, I just lightly rub, and in 7 years I can,t see any degradation of the surfaces, at all, but then I try to polish & wax them after cleaning
they are stock saw blade design wheels, they look better now than when I bought the car
they look like this (not my car but the wheels look the same)

BTW
SUPERIOR FORMULA 23 HEAVY DUTY INDUSTRIAL CLEANER & DEGREASER
"BLACK BOTTLE/JUG, & YELLOW LETTERING"
"PUBLIX super market sells it"

if you ever want to clean your cars engine while its in the car, a spray bottle filled with a 50%/50% mix of that cleaner/solvent sprayed onto the outer surfaces and left to soak for 5 minutes and a pressure washer does an amazing job if used several times in repeated succession

 

[pluslt]

Think I'm going to try and pick some of this stuff up for the wheels on my Tundra. Did you wear gloves? I have used some industrial cleaner type stuff in the past and had the skin come off my hands. Literally pealed it off. Lesson learned. Want to make sure I have some gloves on hand if I need em.

 

[grumpyvette]

Think I'm going to try and pick some of this stuff up for the wheels on my Tundra. Did you wear gloves? I have used some industrial cleaner type stuff in the past and had the skin come off my hands. Literally pealed it off. Lesson learned. Want to make sure I have some gloves on hand if I need em.

I didn,t wear gloves but probably should have done so, as the stuff mildly irritated my hands, but those are so scared and callused that took some strong chemicals to do, I used a semi stiff brush on most of the surfaces but barely rubbed at all, mostly soaked and wiped

 

[pluslt]

Thanks. By the way, any suggestions on where to pick this up? I just got back WalMart and they don't carry. The place you listed isn't a store we have up here in Maryland.