[FifeTiger]

I feel terrible

Previous owner had lovingly cherished my Tiger, kept it clean and free from tarnish, I've had it one year and a careless month over Christmas when I assumed the wheels would scrub up magically like my old Honda - and the wheels are pitted.

Well, a wheel and a half - the left side of the rear is ok thanks to lube fling.

Any magic cures involving elbow grease and Mrs Miggins housewife's remedy ?

Or is it wheels off and down to the blasters ?

And does this happen to the cast wheels ?

 

[brianre]

someone told me to use vinegar, lemon juice or combo of both. haven't tried it yet, but can't see why it would cause any harm. Need to do front myself, that's the worst

 

[FifeTiger]

vinegar's great for removing tarnish and rust, but not convinced it'll help already pitted metal.

But all suggestions welcome.....

 

[TucsonBill]

From my old VW rebuilding days....
I cleaned the rust out of pitted areas with Naval Jelly, a phosphoric acid goo that makes rust disappear quite efficiently. I then used this rust stopping stuff that was like gun blueing, it made the bare metal turn black and is used as a metal prep before painting. This is all I needed to do to keep the rust under control and harder to see. But then, this is in Arizona where rust is something we need to import! My rusty VW came from Montana.

 

[BigStripey]

All the polishes in the world are not going to recover the pitted surface in my opinion..... There really is only one solution if you want to keep the standard finish, and that is have them blasted and re-lacquered. If you felt like a change, perhaps you could powder coat them instead ??

My rear wheel hub is badly pitted, all i have done is keep it free from any more pitting, but it hacks me off to see it like it Oh the joys of british road salt in winter !!!

 

[robbie]

On 2007-01-29 16:56, BigStripey wrote:

My rear wheel hub is badly pitted,

:???: :???: How ?

I can not tell if mine are pitted to much cr*p on them
:-D

bash plate seams to have some sort of growth on it thou :???:

 

[miker]

With a bit of elbow grease you can bring them back. Usually the pitting is not that deep and will come out with some Muthers or Autosol rubbed in with 000 or 0000 steel wool. Don't worry it won't scratch! I use it all the time on my Harley alloy, including the primary cover, head light mount and front forks.

For my Harley's wheels I used this - Glisten PC. I had the wheels stripped, polished, repainted in gold, and then put the Glisten PC over the top. That was 18 months ago and all I have to do is wipe them with a cloth to keep them clean. There is also no sign of any pitting coming back. Sorry I don't have a before pic, just an after.

Mick