Rim Damage - Any suggestions
 

My caliper is messed up in the front and wore the inside brake pad down pre-maturely to the metal. Drove on that for some time last year and my front rim rusted. Pretty much the extremely hot metal brake dust melted into the clear coat and it now appears as rust (before it just looked like brake dust I couldnt get clean).

So far Ive tried:

Wheel Cleaner
Soap and scrubbing
Cleaner wax
Attempted to clay bar lol
Simple Green
and various mixes of the above chemicals with vigorous scrubbing.

It has minimally helped but wheel still looks horrible. I haven't had the nuts to try tire acid or an acid based chemical.

I figure I would seek advice at this point, what do you guys recommend?

Post my abysmal attempt at a self-repair, Keystone professional rim repair/repaint was the route I had to take for a couple curbed rims (note: don't loan your '8 to a friend!). Some things require the pro's and their dedicated equipment.

are these stock wheels?

True, Im just checking to see if anyone has experience with rusting rims. This is not pertaining to curb rash. I plan to powercoat these wheels over the winter anyways so it's not really a pressing issue, just dont want my perfect looking RX8 rolling on a rust wheel all summer if I can make it better.

Yes sir.

use some rubbing compound. or even wetsand and polish it.
if its the stock wheel then it is just like any clearcoat/painted surface.

A picture would be nice to see what we are dealing with.

i know this place in california that charges $50 a rim.... but then again... thats in california.

I will get one tomorrow when there's some daylight.

wet sand, or bead blast and paint. I would acid bath though. just get a spray bottle with water and some medium sand paper and go at it for a bit.

Sorry, my 2G iphone camera isnt the best but it gives the general idea of whats going on. My rim was actually COMPLETELY rusted at one point, this was after a ton of simple green and generous scrubbing, this is the remnants I cannot get off.

Like I mentioned, I plan to strip down and powdercoat all the wheels over the winter anyways. I just hate how this one wheel looks even though its temporary.


https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1280944016

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1280944016

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...1&d=1280944016

Try Mother's aluminum polish using a drill and their Powerball or Cone buffer. It often does a great job with similar tough jobs.

Dare I ask how it was allowed to get that bad in the first place???

Sure, my front brake caliper was applying more pressure on the inner pad which prematurely wore down the brake pad causing metal to rub on the rotor.

The rust is actually metal shavings that burnt into the clear coat of the rim (hence why only one rim is damaged).

just use wheel acid i work in a detail shop use wheel acid and lighty use 0000# steel wool dont press to hard or u will kill ur clear coat or spray acid on it then pressure wash it off

OK, fair enough. Filed under Shiite happens.

So, it would seem your clear coat is toast and possibly the underlying paint as well. Therefore even cutting compound will have to go to bare metal - which is actually a good look, provided it's consistent on all four rims. But as this happened on only one rim my original opinion stands. Take it to a Pro and have them take it down to bare alloy (shot blast), repaint and reclear.

well if it needs all that, than Ill just deal with the uglyness until I powdercoat the wheels anyways.

Its not terrible, I got it to the point where its somewhat not noticable but I notice it :tear:

strip and powdercoat?

Oh yeah, ya gotta strip prior to powdercoat for best results. Painting/powdercoating is all about preparation.

Yea this was planned anyways so Im not too worried about it :smoker:

Just wanted to check in to see if there was an easy fix so I dont have to run my beautiful 8 on a rust rim for another 2 months ;)

LOL dude wash it with wheel cleaner. These are alloy wheels it's not corrosion...

Alloy does not rust lol...

have you tried mineral spirits? you can pic up a small 1qt bottle from walmart for about $5 and use an old toothbrush. I don't think its strong enough to strip clear. Worth a shot. Test it in a small area before douching the whole wheel.