Best way top clean Evo BBS wheels?
 

So finally found a set of BBS SE wheels in my state for cheap and of course they are not in the best of condition as far as finish. How do I go about getting the baked on rust like residue off of the wheels? I bought a plastic tub from walmart that I can soak the wheels in with some soap to try and loosen it up and then scrub, but is there an easier route to take? The rims will ultimately have to have the finish removed as two of them had a lot of paint chips in the finish on the face so I will just refinish them all. Would I just be able to skip the soak if I am going to remove the paint anyway?
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Yeah, thats a common issue w/Semi Met pads & not cleaning the wheels frequently

I would take a household Scotcbrite pad w/some Simple Green & remove that. Light scrub only.

Ultimately a nice powder coat re-finish can always be done

Thanks. I will do that then as apparently they have been sitting for god knows how long. The guy I bought them from brought them back with him from Germany (military) and had them sitting for at least a year.

If your planning on repainting the wheels then the scotchbrite is a good idea. The scratches it leaves will help the new paint adhere to the surface. This is generally a step done before laying down a surfacer/sealer coat.

Use an iron remover/decon. I use CarPro IronX. You can watch the brake dust literally melt off the wheels. Word of caution though: only use it outside because it stinks (like words cannot describe how terrible it smells).
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I was about to suggest the same thing. This stuff works like magic. Don’t use anything abrasive until you try this stuff. And don’t bother with Iron-X car soap. You need the above exact product.

I had looked that up as well on youtube and since I had amazon credit I got that coming today. Looked like it would do most of the heavy duty stuff so here is to hoping.

This may sound weird, but when we were kids, we would use coca cola to get surface rust off our bikes when we left them outside in the rain. Worth a shot and probably won't mess up the paint.

Man even the entire bottle of $20 iron remover soaking multiple times wasn't enough to get it all gone LOL. Just sucked it up and stripped them all the way down as whatever it was had eaten into the clear/paint anyway and was obviously on there for quite some time. I did learn how to fix curb rash with some QuickSteel putty myself taking on this little project though so there is that HA.

Do we get an "after" picture at least?

Totally makes sense

That metallic residue sits in those pockets & gets wet, gets heated & tears right through the paint coating. A simple home rattle can job can be done (w/a proper prep job) or a nice Powder coating job would be best

Just did a quick primer/rattle can job in black stainless steel as I am unsure what color I really want that is close to the SE diamond black color at the moment and this is less permanent than powder coating them for now. Not perfect by any means, but decent enough for me as I don't drive a show car LOL

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.evo...9cfce5abe7.jpg

Looks Proper {thumbup}