Detailing Tires

When Detailing people's rims I have been using a standard degreaser on the rims. At times it leaves the rims streaky and I am not sure why this occurs? Also i can not get it to come off after wiping down with a wet towel. Is it because it is too potent or are there other reasons? How can I avoid this?

Andrew

The chemical is probably to strong, "safe" wheel cleaners are the best products to use. I use an All-purpose cleaner mixed with water or a very strong acid based cleaner for very dirty rims. Never let any chemical dry on the rims to prevent chemical etching.

http://www.topoftheline.com/brakedust.html

I hear that man, thanks for the response. I tried to dilute what I had yesterday with water but it still caused etching. Do you know of anyway to get rid of etching once it occurs? Also what brand do you reccommend for cleaning tires?

To clean tires I usually use Simple Green sprayed on dry tires or a white wall cleaner - Wesley's(spelling error) tire bleach works great on all tires. On real white walls (old style) i clean them as normal then wipe down with laquer thinner for a perfect white strip.

Depending how bad the etching is, polish will remove the defects sometimes.

The bad news is that once you have acid-etching in your wheels, there's not a whole lot you can do. You could try something like P21S Finish Restorer... I've gotten light etching out with this. It depends on how bad the etching is.

You really should try to avoid using a wheel cleaner with acid in it! (unless you have German-made brakes since the brake dust is extremely sticky...) There are several fantastic wheel cleaners these days which don't contain acid and do wonders on your wheels. Not too many years ago, this wasn't true but now it is. I would try P21S wheel cleaner. They have 2 versions- the regular one and a concentrated gel one. The gel one is unqiue and very effective because it doesn't dry up right away so you can leave it on your wheels for awhile to soak (and this is safe because there's no acid in it). If P21S doesn't work for you, try einszett's wheel cleaner. This is also very strong yet acid-free. I've found that different wheel cleaners work better on different brakes which make different brake dust (usually depending on where they're from- German, Japanese, domestic, etc) so sometimes you have to try a couple.

Basically, wheel cleaning chemicals have come a long way and there's rarely reason why you should put your precious rims at risk with acid.

I use Meguiars Hot Rims removes brake dust andleaves a good shine.

I had made the mistake of using hrdroforic acid on polished alluminum rims and they were acid etched with stain effects fortuneately I machined the alluminum with Metal polish using the power polisher and a wool pad at high rpms , first i apply a coating by hand then machine it off with the polisher. But before I started to fix it I made sure the acid was nutralized with car soap so im not machining acid even deeper into the finish. Ive made this mistake on more than one occasion over the 7 years and never had a problem with bringin it back. I suggest you give that a shot brown also try washing your rims after you fix them with nothing more than mild soap and a wash mitt cus the rims are obviously open to the nasty environment and are just waiting for more chemical reactions to take place in it. It acts like a sponge to detergents and acids. Another suggestion I will give you is to give them a clear coating when you got them shined up again. Use clear wheel coatings designed for wheels not clear coat for paints. I hope your rims turn out good.