Wheel Cleaning

Today I tackled something that had been bugging me for a while. While pulling off my wheels for a future project, I decided to give them a cleaning. With approximately 180 thousand on the ticker, the inner rim had turned a shade black from all the road grime and break dust that had accumulated. I knew that my wheels would look great with a bit of cleaning so I broke out the can of degreaser and got to work.

After removing the wheels from my car, I laid them face down on the ground. If you’re not careful you will scratch the face of the wheel, but it wasn’t a problem with the stock wheels. You may want to lay them on a piece of cardboard or old carpet just to be safe. I grabbed the can of degreaser and sprayed a thick layer on the inner rim, no reason to be sparring. After waiting between five and ten minutes I got scrubbing with a bristle brush, making sure not to miss a spot. It took about 5 minutes of scrubbing on each wheel before I was satisfied with what was coming off.. A gentle flip and they were laying with the face up. A touch more degreaser on the fronts and then another round of scrubbing. I would have liked to use a smaller brush or sponge, for the small crevasses of the rim, but I used what was available at the time.

I then took my wheels over to the spigot and turned it up full blast. This took most of the grim off, leaving a nice black puddle at the base of the tire. I went over it once more with the bristle brush and then a final rinse with the hose. I let them dry off in the heat of the sun before I rolled them back to the car and mounted them back up. The results were astonishing, giving my Legacy a new touch of perfection.