Eroding alloy on wheels

[Jag]

I just ordered 4 of their products including the aluminum polish and cleaner you pictured. Thanks for that link....

Just one other thing I do is clean the wheels with spray 9 marine and a green and yellow pot scrubber with plenty of water to get the crud off. Then polish

Make sure it's the marine formula not the regular stuff. Spray nine marine will not dull metal and is a lot stronger.

 

[ant]

Don't think the guy has any problems polishing these..

 

[Claviger]

It's mostly environment. I live about 1/2 mile from the ocean, no garage, bike looks like it's 5 years old at least because of corrosion, and it was purchased in September last year. No point in fixing it until I leave this place in Jan of 17 so I just look past it for now. It's either that, or spend hours every week polishing all the things.

 

[1olbull]

Just finished installing new rear wheel bearings.
After 3.5 years figured I'd try and hand clean the rear wheel, which was pretty grimy.
After about 20 minutes I was very surprised how well they came out.
The stuff I used is called FLITZ which I bought at the International Bike Show.

 

[Oldschool]

My rear wheel on my roadster (2011) looked like salt had been dumped on sandpaper mixed with black brake dust. I thought the wheel was ruined and the only option I had was powder coating. I was wrong... Keep in mind that my bike it kept ungaraged and exposed to the elements (rain) for months on end (Don't wory I am almost done with a 2000sqft shop space it will be able to park in, so no cries of abuse). I managed to get it to look better than new from being like sandpaper. This is what I did:

Get some cotton buffer wheels for a drill (mothers wheel balls are a joke), super fine steel wool, aluminum polish, invisible glass spray can, 2 rolls of blue towels, a wheel cleaning brush, and aluminum safe soap.

Take the brush and soap (along with a garden hose) and scrub the piss out of the wheels. The more filth you can get off now the better since it saves time with the more involved cleaning.

Let them dry, and dip some steel wool into the polish (I used mothers aluminum polish because Its what I could find at 2am). Work on polishing the wheels with the steel wool. The steel wool will lift all the corrosion,brake dust, etc right off the wheel. Do the whole wheel like this, and wipe all the polish off. You want to see no remaining oxidization or brake dust particles. If you see crap still on the wheel redo your work because the buffer wheels wont clean it off well. The end result with the wool will look much better than it did previously, but not mirror like. That is where the wheel buffers come in.

Clean all of the polish off with dry towels, and use the invisable glass to clean any film/filth thats left. Take a buffer wheel on a drill, load it up with polishing compound (or smear it lightly on a area of the wheel, and lightly buff a small area at a time. if you take your time and let the buffer wheel do the work (not agressively push down, use too much/little compound) you will be rewarded with a very glossy finish. The front wheel comes out mirror like on my bike, the rear wheel comes out close to mirror like. The factory rear wheel on my bike was much less polished than the front in stock form, which is likely why it doesn't get mirror like with a simple one step polish. With finer polish and more effort/time you can get the rear to have a mirror shine.

I read about the steel wool and was afraid to try it because I thought it would tear the wheel up. In my case it didn't and was absolutely invalueable to get the oxidization/brake dust off. Buffing wheels wouldn't take it off, and you can forget about hand polishing with papertowels. I will get pics up tomorrow and you guys would be shocked at the difference.

 

[Oldschool]

On a second note:

Depsite my bike being parked outside (typically without a cover) the rear wheel was mostly rough on the inside of the brake disk side. The brake dust off the factory pads does a absolute number on the uncoated aluminum. The bevel box side took 1/3 the time to clean/polish to make look good as the brake side. Seriously thought my rear wheel was complete junk before cleaning it. I have a feeling to many people tried hand polishing the rear wheel, saw minimal progress, and assumed the wheel was junk. I have a hard time believing anyones wheel on here could have looked worse than mine when I started. I saw aluminum wheels on 22 year old cars that looked better than mine, and it came out better than new.

 

[grampi]

Well at least billet aluminium can always be rescued, even if it may take sand paper and a fair bit of elbow grease in extreme cases. But I've seen videos of people starting out with wheels that never were polished and then grinding those down successively with decreasing grit and finishing up with a polish and ending up with a mirror shine.

True, but the problem with doing this is you have to polish them all the time, or they'll oxidize and go right back to looking like crap...the most durable wheel finish I've experienced is chrome, and it probably isn't that much more expensive than powder coating either, and it looks a hellovalot better IMO...

 

[cr0ft]

True, but the problem with doing this is you have to polish them all the time, or they'll oxidize and go right back to looking like crap...the most durable wheel finish I've experienced is chrome, and it probably isn't that much more expensive than powder coating either, and it looks a hellovalot better IMO...

This might be something; ShineSeal.com ::: Protect Your Products :::

My problem now is that the Touring wheels are pretty much naked aluminium on the sides, but inside the "spokes" there's a thick layer of some crap on the inside surfaces. So far, paint stripper does nothing to it. And it's very hard to sand it out, strongly considering just breaking out the Dremel at this juncture. The question then becomes if I can actually get the surface smoothly finished or if it becomes a bumpy mess. Dammit Triumph, one or the fricking other, not this halfway mess. Blah.

Edit: Well, I've tried anything and everything I could think of. Running out of day, but tomorrow I'm going to treat the whole wheel with the most sensible method I found - first, 2000 grit sandpaper until the impurities in the metal are gone. Second, Meguiar's M105 ultra cut compound and a machine, to smooth it out (it's a bit more aggressive than Flitz). And then the finishing touch which will be Flitz, also applied with a machine. It gives a great near-mirror result - in order to get fully mirrored you probably have to start with 600 grit and really dig in, then go via 1200 to 2000 and then 105 + Flitz. We'll see how much energy I have tomorrow...

 

[Mittzy]

This might be something; ShineSeal.com ::: Protect Your Products :::

My problem now is that the Touring wheels are pretty much naked aluminium on the sides, but inside the "spokes" there's a thick layer of some crap on the inside surfaces. So far, paint stripper does nothing to it. And it's very hard to sand it out, strongly considering just breaking out the Dremel at this juncture. The question then becomes if I can actually get the surface smoothly finished or if it becomes a bumpy mess. Dammit Triumph, one or the fricking other, not this halfway mess. Blah.

Edit: Well, I've tried anything and everything I could think of. Running out of day, but tomorrow I'm going to treat the whole wheel with the most sensible method I found - first, 2000 grit sandpaper until the impurities in the metal is gone. Second, Meguiar's M105 ultra cut compound and a machine, to smooth it out (it's a bit more aggressive than Flitz). And then the finishing touch which will be Flitz, also applied with a machine. It gives a great near-mirror result - in order to get fully mirrored you probably have to start with 600 grit and really dig in, then go via 1200 to 2000 and then 105 + Flitz. We'll see how much energy I have tomorrow...

I would sandblast and powder coat
That's what I intend to do.
That's just me tho

 

[chrisdouglas]

Can anyone advise?
Has anyone else had wheels replaced?
I am on my 3rd Rocket, a 2013 Rocket roadster. Never used in winter. Fortunate enough to be retired and do not need to take out when salt on road.
My first Rocket, a 2006, bought in 2008, the wheels were not brilliant, but with a lot of effort, could keep reasonable.
My second, a 2011 Roadster, bought when 6 months old, had the wheels replaced at 15 months because the alloy was corroding. This is despite regular cleaning/polishing and never going out in winter.

Hi I am on my second R3 and on both from new I had them silver grey powder coated before going on the road - never had issues cleaning them as powder coating is easy [cost for both wheels 6 years ago was about £250, well worth it] but you right why aren't they done at the factory