I'm preparing to refinish my powder coated/painted Mini S-Lites. I have no intention of media blasting.

Generally, I rotate my tires 2wice a year. When doing so, I normally scrub the inside/backside of the wheel with engine de-greaser to remove the dirt and brake dust.
Subsequently finishing off with soap and water. Although time consuming - This does a fairly good job.

Anyone else have a better DIY suggestion?

 

You should probably start with a product that will remove iron particulates that get embedded in the surface. CarPro Iron Out and Gyeon Iron are good choices. I'm sure there are many others. A warning about the CarPro product: the smell is really offensive. REALLY offensive. Wear a mask! After that, you may also want to use a tar remover. Then clean as you describe above. Finish by wiping with IPA (not India Pale Ale, the other IPA, though by this point in the process you may be ready for an IPA).

 

I used the regular/original version of Sonax Full Effect wheel cleaner, not the plus or beast variants, on my R90’s and they came out great. A little expensive, but I bought the big refill that’s equal to 10 bottles and about 40% cheaper than individual bottles. If you drive enough, have a few cars, or can split it with someone it’s really worth it.

Like the products listed above, it smells really bad, like rotten eggs or a cloud of sulfur. The smell was actually coming through the sealed jug so I put it into a sealed bucket since I didn’t have a good place to store it outside.

I’ve never had any issues, but make sure to test it on someplace hidden to make sure it doesn’t damage the finish. Pics of the results after very little effort

 

Thanks.
This is the first set of "painted" rims I'​​​​​​ve ever had on any of my previous cars. All others were either chrome, polished aluminum or polished composite metal/magnesium. I think I had used a similar iron inhibitor in the past on those rims. "Adams"?
Thanks for your suggestions for what to use on painted rims. I'll first try to source either of them locally or by default - Amazon.

 

I really like Adam's products too. I swear by their glass cleaner and often use their wheel cleaner, car shampoo and rubber trim treatment (don't recall the name of that one). I don't have experience with the iron decontaminant but I don't think they make any bad products so I'm sure it works well.

You might consider ceramic coating the wheels after refinishing. It makes that really easy to clean. In most cases you won't even need wheel cleaner. Watch some of the videos by Esoteric Car Care (they have a YouTube channel) . They are really informative and the video on prepping wheels for coating should apply to the cleanup you need to do before refinishing.

 

+1 ceramic coating.
I submitted a couple of post in the "what did you to your mini today" thread; regarding my wheel rash repair.
' definitely planning on treating/coating the wheels after the lacquer has a chance to fully cure.
I hope my wheels will turn out nearly as nice as yours look.

 

I saw your posts detailing the wheel refurb. It was impressive work. I look forward to seeing the final product. Doing that is now on my list of jobs to try someday, maybe with the wheels that were on my R53 when I bought it.

 

Thanks, everyone!

2/4 wheels - Brake dust & Iron deposits removed & cleaned. I ended up using Adams again and a whole lot of scrubbing.
Rust on the inner mating hub surfaces was removed with Ospho (sorry, no after pic).

 

They look almost new. Amazing patience and work.