Help with wheels

Hi everyone!

Another question here, not direclty related to the R3, but more to the wheels of my V-Max. I noticed the wheels got dark, with signs of corrosion. I tried to clean it with very fine polishing compound (Scratch X) but didn't do a thing. Then I tried 45 micron diamond paste - nothing. The guy that sold me the R3 told me to use Never Dull. Wheels get shiny, but the dark spots and the corrosion marks are still there. I don't know what happened, but I believe the salt here in Northeast OH is what is causing this.

I checked the wheels of the R3 and in some spots they are dark too. Not as bad as in the V-Max, but getting there. Tried the Never Dull and wherever the dark spots are present, nothing happens. The rest gets really nice and shiny.

Any suggestions on how to get rid of that? My next step would be using a worn out 1200 grit sand paper.

Thanks!

Mothers ball and polish, otherwise send the wheel to Cadfather he will for sure take care of it for ya. :wink:

I was thinking 'Cadfather' as I was reading your post, too.

Cadfather will make it POP like chrome.
or you could powdercoat it instead if you prefer.

I was reading his post and said to my self, "Self, I hope no one says anything about asking the CADFather." :lol: Actually the issue on the wheels sounds like impurities in the aluminum combining with the road salts, but without seeing it in person and examining it I would only be guessing as to the cause. I do know that my old '96 Virago had some problems with the aluminum wheels and to much magnesium making them appear whitish. And on some of the parts that I have done on other bikes there are small discolored areas in the aluminum where different lots or batches of aluminum were mixed. Most of the time these can go all of the way through the part, but sometimes they are only surface deep and can be sanded away.

If I were doing either set of wheels I would attempt the sanding to get below the discolored areas only if I could not see any discoloration on the inside of the wheel. If it does go all the way through, they sound like a good candidate for powder coating.

I can fix either set and make them both shine, but there will always be the possibility that the dark areas could come back over time and there is a good chance you would be able to see a difference in the shine on the wheel, depending on the impurity's composition.

CAD

You gott'a sand 'em down to get rid of the machining marks, then polish away.

The only way to do it right is to remove the wheels, then remove the rotor discs, sand, then polish finer and finer 'til you get the desired level of polish, then wax heavily. Don't attempt a clear coating 'cause you'll just make the job exponentially more difficult the next time, and there will be a next time. If you stick with wax, you just polish the bad area and coat with wax.

Hello All,

I saw the posting yesterday and was wondering what Cadfather would be... Now I know!

Yesterday I brought home a 1200 sandpaper and sanded the wheel in one spot to see what would happen. The marks went away after a lot of pressure and time sanding it. Maybe 1200 is to fine, but after that I used Never Dull and that area got really nice now. It's only difficult to sand the curved areas, but with time and patience I believe it will do the job.
The funny thing is that the front wheel on the Rocket is absolutely fine. The back wheel has spots that are gray. I suppose if the problem was the salt, it should be in both wheels, just like in the V-Max. Weird...

I would post a picture of the "before" and "after", but for some reason my photobucket was suspended for "exceeding the 25 Gb bandwidth free per month". How I did that with just 4 pictures of 500 kb each I have absolute no clue... :?

It is much, much easier with the wheels off and rotors off the wheels. 1200 is a bit fine. I started with 400 grit, then 600 grit, then successively finer polishing compounds, finally with Mothers.