I was wondering if you thought I should try and save these wheels, or if you thought that the oxidation had won its battle. Here's the pic, the wheels weren't cleaned before the pic, but all those black marks remain on the tire even when hand polishing, I am thinking of buffing them out with an attachment hooked into my drill, unless you guys say otherwise

 

i would try one of those steam machine cleaners. i have those spots also so im going to try to get my hands on a steam machine. hopefully it works. good luck.

 

Hold out a little and I will tell you.. Mine are worse and I am working on them now with the kit from Eastwood.. The rivets are a pain and I ordered some corser compound and I am going to try a heavier cleaner.. I will let you know what works best..

 

I thought the rivets would be quite hard. Thats why I was asking about doing the work on them myself, if its too time intensive or if it doesn't do anything, than I might as well buy new ones or get these powdercoated/refurbished.

3.4 Keep us posted on how the steam cleaning works!

 

Well I bought some heavy cleaner made for rough alloy wheels today and got them 95% clean (dull, but clean) Now I will start to polish them. I have 3 wheels now and may pick up some small ones for a dremmel to work the rivets. I would almost think about having them powder coated, but I love these rims (solid disks) If you like the powder coat, get them done.. I think I have close to $75 into wheel buffing stuff now (I ordered some coarser compound, then add in the cleaner ect...)

However, mine are looking pretty sweet and were really bad..

 

PS, I don't think a steam cleaner will make a big diffrence.. The cleaner I bought was applied 4 times per wheel and scrubbed with 000 steel wool and brass brushes and it took a ton of work to get them 95% clean..

PS, With your rims, I would polish the edges and black powder coat the center section. Mine are all 1 piece billet with the rivets. But yours would look killer like that.

 

You have any before and after pics?

 

Here is the rims, before.. (they look good here, they were much worse than they looked)

I have not taken any "after" Yet, but I will before I start to polish them.