Cleaning old brake dust off trim rings?

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FURY440

FURY440

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Picked up a full factory set of original Rallye wheels for my 66 Valiant yesterday and are in great shape. The only issue is 2 of the trim rings seem to have in-bedded brake dust that the PO never cleaned. I can take my finger and feel the small deposits all over the trim ring. I tried soap and water, but it didn't work. What's the best way to get this off? Or should I just purchase new rings? These are the chrome plated factory trim rings.
Thank you....
 
I'm going to try some Simple Green spray and let it sit then use chrome polish and maybe a Brillo pad. Kind of hard to see it in the picture,.but it's the front trim rings.
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The autoparts stores sell all kinds of products (O'Reilly's in my case), I had a set of rims that I tried anything I could find at home (soap, simple green, lacquer thinner, carb cleaner, chrome polish, etc. etc.), and could not get that pesky brake dust off. Tried this stuff and it worked on my chrome rims (Eagle One - Chrome Wheel Cleaner). Mind you these were chrome rims, which are slick, but even with that I could not get them to clean up. Not until I used this tuff which worked great, so I think a product like this or similar may do the trick for you.

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If your going to use an abrasive pad, use ultra fine #0000 steel wool or finer with the Eagle One product MOPAR4Me suggested. Been there done that with scratching the chrome/stainless beyond repair goin too course with abrasive pad
 
If you could remove the trim and mount the trim on the reverse side of the rim (no valve stem) then mount the tire and rim on the rear axle. Or if you have a spare rim with no tire, that will work better as long as the valve stem is not there. Once mounted you can put your rear end on jack stands (be safe) have someone run the idle up (or raise your idle screw) while the car is in gear. Once the wheel is spinning nice and fast you can easily and quickly polish the trim rings with wet or dry sand paper (and water). Start with a grit that will remove the blemishes then proceed to finer and finer grits until they shine like new. Chrome polish can be used at the end for a better shine.
I've polished many aluminum rims (really bad ones) this way and I am always totally surprised how quickly you can sand out and polish the worse dings, scars and blemishes!!! I only wish I had a friend with a tire balance machine that I could borrow, that would be the cat's meow!!!

treblig
 
Treblig said:
If you could remove the trim and mount the trim on the reverse side of the rim (no valve stem) then mount the tire and rim on the rear axle. Or if you have a spare rim with no tire, that will work better as long as the valve stem is not there. Once mounted you can put your rear end on jack stands (be safe) have someone run the idle up (or raise your idle screw) while the car is in gear. Once the wheel is spinning nice and fast you can easily and quickly polish the trim rings with wet or dry sand paper (and water). Start with a grit that will remove the blemishes then proceed to finer and finer grits until they shine like new. Chrome polish can be used at the end for a better shine.
I've polished many aluminum rims (really bad ones) this way and I am always totally surprised how quickly you can sand out and polish the worse dings, scars and blemishes!!! I only wish I had a friend with a tire balance machine that I could borrow, that would be the cat's meow!!!

treblig
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I could run the tire on our balance machine to accomplish this,.but will do by hand for now. These are chrome trim rings.
 
Oh....... well in that case 0000 steel wool. But I would still use my method for one important reason. When you polish by hand it's almost impossible to get the polish swirl marks (sanding marks) going in a circular direction. That's the major issue when you're trying to polish aluminum rims especially if they have major issues. If you spin the trim rings all your swirls will be in the exact circular pattern as when they were new. But if you prefer going at it by hand it should work out well unless the trim has minor pitting from the brake dust.

Treblig
 
Treblig said:
Oh....... well in that case 0000 steel wool. But I would still use my method for one important reason. When you polish by hand it's almost impossible to get the polish swirl marks (sanding marks) going in a circular direction. That's the major issue when you're trying to polish aluminum rims especially if they have major issues. If you spin the trim rings all your swirls will be in the exact circular pattern as when they were new. But if you prefer going at it by hand it should work out well unless the trim has minor pitting from the brake dust.

Treblig
Click to expand...

Yes,.that's what I'm affiad of,.pitting! No big deal,.I can always get new ones or wait until the Mopar Nats at Englishtown this upcoming year.
 
MOPAR4Me said:
The autoparts stores sell all kinds of products (O'Reilly's in my case), I had a set of rims that I tried anything I could find at home (soap, simple green, lacquer thinner, carb cleaner, chrome polish, etc. etc.), and could not get that pesky brake dust off. Tried this stuff and it worked on my chrome rims (Eagle One - Chrome Wheel Cleaner). Mind you these were chrome rims, which are slick, but even with that I could not get them to clean up. Not until I used this tuff which worked great, so I think a product like this or similar may do the trick for you.

View attachment 1714993156
Click to expand...

Thank you!
I used Eagle One Chrome Wheel Cleaner and it worked great. At first it didn't work just by spraying the trim rings and using a soft scrub brush. I sprayed them again and let it sit on for about 10 minutes or so, then used 0000 steel wool and went to town on them. Very happy with the result.
Here's a before and after!
IMG_0663.JPG

IMG_0679.JPG
 
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