Great result from homemade mag wheel cleaner

gpg58, Jul 19, 10:55am
Don't forget to take before and after photos, and post if actually any good.

intrade, Jul 19, 11:06am
be carfull vinnigar is quite agressive to paint. project farm just demonstrated it in one of his videos, its good in rust removal and cleaning oxidation. We hardly have oxidation on mag wheels here.

sw20, Jul 19, 2:09pm
Those wheels in the video are just dirty with brake dust and road grime.

A hose, an old wash mitt and leftover car wash will remove it.

richynuts, Jul 19, 3:27pm
agree a bit of washing powder in warm water would of cleaned up those wheels no problem at all. Just a waste of vinegar and soda.

ronaldo8, Jul 22, 1:00pm
White vinegar, acetic acid, plus baking soda, sodium bicarbonate instantly reacts to become water and sodium acetate. Sodium acetate isn't a cleaner, at all, no one uses it for that, it's salt and vinegar chip flavor. It's a bit gritty though and so can act as a mild abrasive which is the source of these wonderous cleaning powers. You could use Jif equally well.

You could probably achieve the same effect by just cleaning with water, the brake dust would do the abrasive bit for you. Clean water and detergent would be far better, or Jif! with 10% more steak knives.

But, if the aluminum is oxidized you could use just dilute vinegar, with some care.

Vinegar on open pore aluminum oxide (not sealed with dye or paint) will eat it off, but if you leave it sitting it will then attack the aluminum underneath, not so good, so immediately after getting it shiny you could neutralize it with some baking soda then rinse that off with plenty of water. You'll then be left with clean aluminum, but of course that will instantly begin to oxidize again as aluminum is extremely reactive/oxygen hungry. Dry thoroughly, polish then clear coat or anodize (aka: add back a deliberate oxide layer whose pores are sealed with dye/paint.)

lythande1, Jul 22, 1:39pm
You know that's nonsense?
Sure vinegar is good for some cleaning jobs - because it's an acid. But the minute you stick baking soda in it, it fizzes impressively, then stops, and is now neutral. Thats WHY the fizz. so you just killed the acidity.

And vinegar isn't good for everything.

Amazing how someone puts something on the net, without any real understanding of chemistry and everyone follows blindly like sheep.

alleycatz, Jul 22, 3:12pm
BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

marte, Jul 22, 4:49pm
Does the fizzing lift off crud? That's the only reason that I can think it would work.
At the same time, oven cleaner 'foams' &'i still have a tough time cleaning the brake dust off the inside of my alloys with that.
Mag wheel cleaner does the same job by the look, and smell, of it.

marte, Jul 22, 4:54pm
I'm getting that with the the ' Dross ' , ex Tiwai point Aluminium smelter.
It's just Aluminium Oxides & Aluminium grit.
The same stuff that's in your knife sharpening stones & jewellery.

But some idiots believe that as soon as it gets wet, it's going to produce poison gas & explode like a nuclear bomb.

cjohnw, Jul 22, 5:31pm

clark20, Jul 22, 5:38pm
For brake dust I find Mr Muscle cleaner works well

strobo, Jul 22, 5:54pm
I usually use good ol autosol in the tube with a good hand rub.yes you can still buy it ,been around for donks. Speaking of tube here's a clip off utube ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZmKDSKFEU0

bitsnpieces2020, Jul 23, 4:23pm
+1 for autosol for polishing

elect70, Jul 25, 6:44pm
Tried to clean up mine on my merc but were too far gone . Got them sandblasted powdercoated & new centre caps for $300 cash

wind.turbine, Dec 10, 11:13pm
just done mine on my triton which were pretty bad thanks to pit stops cheap pads they put on a few years back.

just used acetone on a rag and it wiped right off where scrubbing has never really done much.

Followed up with a soap clean and apart from the pitting they are the best they've looked in a long time!
Before https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/1379545236.jpg After https://trademe.tmcdn.co.nz/photoserver/full/1379545379.jpg