how to clean wire wheels

My wire wheels have quite a bit of crud on them and in some areas some pitting and surface rust. Apart from spending hours on end with a brush trying to clean them, does anyone have suggestions about chemicals or any other ideas to make this task less time consuming? thanks!

simple cleaning. Buy eagle one wire wheel cleaner..spray on and hose off after one minute. Dont let it stay on for more than a minute.
do this a couple of times.