Wheel Cleaning: Desperate Measure

[Nick M3]

I have a <5,000 mile set of OZ Superleggeras that, in my first use, I basically destroyed with track pad dust:




Needless to say, that made me kind of cranky. My intent is to use these for summer tires, so I've been looking at getting them refinished. Thankfully, it's only two wheels, so it wouldn't be *that* expensive. Of course, when you are ready to have them painted, that opens up a whole new field of options: like going to down with "full strength" muriatic acid. For dust that wheel brightener and a ton of elbow grease wouldn't touch, here is the result of ten minutes of scrubbing with a paint chip brush:




I'd call that a 98% improvement. I decided that the diminishing returns of continuing to work at the wheels were probably outweighed by the risk of letting the hydrochloric acid solution sit on them any longer.

So, here is a possibility for when you are absolutely, utterly desperate.