After spending several hours detailing my MINI this past weekend, at least one of those hours spend on my white wheels, i noticed tiny black specks on my wheels, at first i thought it was just brake dust that hadn't come off but after a half an hour of trying i hadn't gotten any of it off. I think i may have driven through something, but i don't know what I've tried tar remover, but that's about it, has anyone else run into this. If it ever stops raining I'll go take a picture.

 

I had some on my original R-84s. Previous owners didn't clean the wheels and I think it was brake "dust" that pitted/burned into the finish. Didn't matter that much cause I ended up powder coating them. No help from me, maybe someone has dealt with this succesfully, good luck.

 

I have white holies on my 03 MC, these wheels have about 75k miles on them, the car has over 100k, but I ran snows mounted on steel wheels for a couple of winters while still up in The Great White North.

Some things you can try is a solution of Simple Green/water mixed 50/50. You may need to let this soak for several minutes. If you don't have the wheels off the car, take a cloth soaked in the solution, and hold it in place.

Simple Green at work;




Another thing you can try is to clay bar the black spots off. I have had good success doing that. Also, once you do get the wheels as clean as possible, I recommend you apply some wheel wax. I have been using Wheel Shield from Detailers Paradise, which besides offering great protection, also has cleaning properties.

My white wheels do have some black spots on them, but they are chips in the paint, not some form of containment.

Mark

 

thanks

very detailed, I'll try that as soon as i go back home for Christmas break. that's the problem with living on campus at a university i have no way to wash my car, and I'm to broke to afford the machine wash

 

Your welcome We do tend to be rather detailed, here on the Detailing forum

Mark

 

it has to be said that, that was horrible corny, yet i woke my room mate by laughing.

 

Mark

 

Hi my flamespoke alloys badly pitted so i used WD40 and a stiff brush and just like new

 

what kind of stiff brush did you use?

if it's pitted you are missing paint. you removed all the paint off cleanly for a nice bare aluminum look?

i usually use RC car motor spray to remove tar.