When Iron X and Tardis Fail - What Next?

[Chrishazle]

Put the winter boots on the car yesterday (on lovely shiny almost new rims!) so today was time to clean the original wheels for storage. It's a July 08 S204 Elegance with standard 16" rims with far too many spokes!

As I suspected, the light refurb MB Ashford gave the wheels in March (part of the prep of selling the car to me) was just a blow-over of the outsides. The insides were thick solid black, so first I pressure washed them to get rid of the worst of it.

The first 3 rims (both rears and front nearside) came up well enough with just 2 applications of Iron X - spray on, wait a while, go round with 1" paint brush then a small sponge with the nylon scrubbing face, rinse well and repeat. Great, add rimwax and move to storage rack.

4th rim - front offside - initially looked the same as the other 3. However, an hour or more, 8 or 10 Iron X treatments as above, plus a try with tardis on a cloth and a bit of BMW (BAN!! - it was a freebie I happened to have) alloy wheel cleaning gel and there's still quite a lot of black on the inside of the rim. Some is light speckling, some is heavy speckiling, then there are 4 or 6 places right at the gap between the spokes where there's a 2" x 1" solid blob, right where it will be visible. Iron X hardly changes colour now when I spray it on.

In the end I said "**** this for a game of toy soldiers", added rimwax and put the wheel on the rack.

So, short of a trip to Rimtec for a chemical strip and refurb (which, for all 4 would set me back £230) is there anything else I can try to get this black muck removed?

 

[billywhiz]

Have you tried rubbing a clay bar over it to see if any of the residue can be removed ? - This may be next call of action.

 

[bolide]

When Iron X and Tardis fail you're running out of Superheroes!

Nick Froome

 

[mikec32]

That is pain. Sometimes, rims can just be too far gone. It's a pain but with out having a go myself I couldn't suggest much as this point

 

[Chrishazle]

Agree it's a pain - especially with my lower back problem, which is part of the reason I said "enough" and went looking for a suitable analgesic (Shephard Neame Spitfire....). I've stuck the damned thing on the rack, covered it with a plakky bag and said I'll think about it another day!

As it happens I'm taking the 968 to Rimtec on Monday for a 4 wheel refurb, so maybe I'll end up biting the bullet and getting all 4 dipped etc - especially as I see the S204 as a keeper. Must admit part of me would prefer selling these rims and getting some others with far fewer spokes!

Basically I'm annoyed - for one reason or another this is the 5th set of rims I've cleaned in the past couple of months, Iron X did such a superb job on the others - and on 3 of the 4 of this set - that I'm p''d off that it's not shifting the crud off this one rim!

 

[Alps]

if its the inside of the rim, use wonderwheels, that stuff is good, then use iron x afterwards

 

[reflexboy]

Tar remover?

 

[Chrishazle]

Tried BMW alloy wheel cleaner, no joy. Tried Tardis - supposed to be the best tar remover - no joy! Haven't tried claying - back aching too much after all I'd tried! What was confusing was that the Iron X was not going red. Kept spraying it on, but it's too damned expensive to waste so eventually gave up after using about 400ml on the one rim!

 

[brucemillar]

Angle grinder. Never fails.

Sent from my iPhone using MBClub UK

 

[nigel cross]

Blueberry wheel cleaner

 

[Superspec]

If the wheels have been lightly refurbed could it be that the dirt you see is under a clearcoat? MB wouldn't have done the job themselves, they would've got a man in, working to a price!

Have a go with clay, a coarse one. Or maybe a compounding polish on a tri-foam.

 

[Chrishazle]

I don't think the dirt is under a clearcoat - the insides of the rims were completely black when I started, so the light refurb done in March was only to the outside faces - unless there was an earlier light refurb I'm not aware of, and the insides were not fully cleaned first! I'm loathe to get rough with it though - used a fine scotch pad on the filthy insides of another set of wheels and went straight trhough the paint to the primer coat!

Might have a go with clay (I have some BH regular) and/or AG Bodyshop 02B 2000 grit paint correcting stuff - just not terribly enthusiastic at the moment.

 

[mikec32]

When wheels are really bad, these are the following products I use in order.

-Surfex
-Snowfoam
-Bilberry.
-Iron X.
-Tardis
-IPA
-Lime prime on the d.a.

This normally gets them to a very high standard, if this isnt shifting them you can use megs wheel brightner by its pretty aggressive!

 

[Chrishazle]

When wheels are really bad, these are the following products I use in order.

-Surfex
-Snowfoam
-Bilberry.
-Iron X.
-Tardis
-IPA
-Lime prime on the d.a.

This normally gets them to a very high standard, if this isnt shifting them you can use megs wheel brightner by its pretty aggressive!

Shame you're so far away from me, I'd be tempted to bring the wheels to you! I've effectivly done the first 5, although I did not use soap when I pressure washed them. On the first 3 rims I only needed about 50-100ml of Iron X, but after using probably 400ml of Iron X on the 4th - plus trying Tardis by cloth - I gave up, totally crackered and with major back ache!

What's IPA? India Pale Ale cannot be correct, but it's the only IPA I know!

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

 

[DRBC43AMG]

What's IPA? India Pale Ale cannot be correct, but it's the only IPA I know!

It could have a high acidic content which is why it is suggested

 

[fatdazza]

What's IPA? India Pale Ale cannot be correct, but it's the only IPA I know!

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

isopropyl alcohol

 

[mikec32]

To be fair bud it looks like you have done the right thing and put the back ache (literally) in. The iron would do all your pitting and if it couldn't shift it you may be at a dead end

 

[nigel cross]

Doesn't ironx only remove metal contamination? and not the detritus from your brake pads

 

[Dieselman]

Doesn't ironx only remove metal contamination? and not the detritus from your brake pads

It's just a regular caustic cleaner, other products will work much better at stubborn dirt.

 

[300CE]

Have you tried using Wonder Wheels Chris? I always have problems with caked in brake dust and cr4p on the wheels of my scooter as i do 250 miles a week on it. I normally use Bilberry or Auto Finesse Grime Remover and then WD40, however, i bought some Wonder Wheels at the weekend and was surprised at how easily and quickly it removed all of the dirt - a hell of a lot easier than the Bilberry & Auto Finesse products (500ml with an applicator and pot for £7.99 in Halfords).

It is slightly acidic, however, i do remember cleaning the wheels of my old MK2 Golf GTi 16v in the 90's which was my pride and joy and never had any problems with using it regularly.

Here's some info on detailing world:

Hydrochloric Acid based wheel cleaners - Detailing World