What not to use on rims?

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Senior Member

Join Date: May 2018

Posts: 3,092

Quote:

Originally Posted by

2008 Tiffin Phaeton 40' Cl A DP. Full time.
I have aluminum wheels. I generally wash them when I can although most parks don't allow washing
The rear rims developed a black ring of road film towards the back
So I cleaned the rims with car soap then used some Mcguires scratch remover to lightly polish them
It made a remarkable improvement but they are not like new.
There's a lot of stains and blemishes not really corrosion
I don't know if there is a clean coat or other coating
On google the advice is all over the place, people just making things up
Does anyone know the proper way to clean aluminum rims up (on the vehicle) like new without doing any damage to any coating or the metal.

First find out if they are coated or not. On my 2011 Alcoas I researched and found mine are not coated, you can tell by the color of the Alcoa label, some are blue and some are black, the black labels are on uncoated wheels. Once you know that you will be able to choose the right cleaning method. Since mine are uncoated I was able to use an aircraft aluminum polish which made them look like new. I heard Mother's works good too. Helps to use a drill and ball. Initially it took about 45 min per wheel and was pretty messy, would have been easier with wheels off though.

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Brian, 2011 Winnebago Via Class A on Sprinter Chassis
2000 Jeep TJ toad
Tucson, AZ