anyway to reverse corrosion? I heard muriatic acid maybe?

 

dont think you can "reverse" corrosion. muriatic acid will just eat away the current corrosion and possibly stop it from getting worse.

 

Are you trying to stop the corrosion? Like the clear coat coming off the wheel or are you trying to remove corrosion from the surface of the wheel? If this is so get a good wheel cleaner that says it isn't safe for clear coat wheels.

 

just take a wire wheel to it and maybe some bead sealer. you can also have your rims refurbished.

 

Im actually in the process of refurbing a set of uncoated aluminum Weld Mountian Crushers. What a pain it is! Didnt really think they were that bad, some pittting toward the inner lip. I bought a bottle of Flitz aluminum precleaner some scratch proof scotchbright pads. That took ALOT of the "corrosion" off. But if theres pitting and you want it gone...get ready for some work. Your going to need to buy muiltple grades of wet/dry sandpaper. I though i could start at 600, wasnt going fast AT ALL! Then went and got some 400...same result. Finally went back yet again and picked up 220 since i didnt have the sense to buy it the first trip,and got after it. Worked all the way up to 2000. I have an aluminum polishing kit (compound bars and different assortment of buffer shapes and sizes for a drill) from different projects that im going to hit it with today to try and get back the chrome look. Its been a serious pain. Not counting the trips to buy different sand paper i think i had about 5 hours lastnight "rubbing that one out" lol and still need to buff. Then add a sealer. The donor i bought for my swap had these wheels on it. Even a matching spare. Five times the fun. I thought this would be a good idea to shine them up to sell on here or craigslist...really getting second thoughts. I most deffinatly wouldnt "just take a wire wheel to it". Thats like letting a cat refluff up your leather couch.... Ive taken a few pics in the process. Probably do a Write-up when i get them all done. I know this reply is a little late but it might help others too.

 

Bead blasting them is the best way

 

not late at all. I haven't had the time to get around to it, I would bead blast them but I don't have a blaster. thanks for the help! And if you don't mind sending me a link to that thread when you put it up that would be awesome.

 

wow you must have some very deep corrosion, in most cases a wire wheel can get the rim almost completely cleaned up. I have cleaned thousands of rims and refurbished hundreds. i use hardener type paint that you have to mix before you apply. most rims only need to be cleaned before each new set of tires, but if all the conditions are right corrosion can become a problem. or in our case, toyota rims tend to get corrosion much easier. me personally, i just clean the bead the best i can and put bead sealer on it to help keep corrosion from happening. much easy and much cheaper.

 

Not to hijack this thread but I'm just curious if media blasting is the same with sand blasting? MY brother gave me a set of used aluminum wheels and there's the stubborn corrosion that I want to remove.

 

yes you can media blast them too. but if you blast them you have to paint them! if you dont paint them they will corrode faster and worse then before

 

I blasted mine with black beauty and painted... that was a few years ago, and its starting to show...