Problem with cleaning Sidewalk Alloys

[Streeters]

Hi I recently aquired a set of Night spoke alloys from a sidewalk for my Cooper, They've been on for nearly 2 months now (the wifes not even scuffed them yet) but I have noticed that they are increasingly difficult to clean for 2 reasons

1 - The Matt finish never looks really clean
2 - I have ingrained dirt in the brushed alloy parts particularly on the rims

Can any sidewalk owners give me any advice / recommendations to help??

Also the plastic wheel centres are more grey than black but I'm hesitatant to use a "blacking" product as most of these are glossy and that may make the car look even worse

Hope some of you guys can help, thanks in advance
Mark

[minicabrio]

What wheel cleaner are you using at the minute? Use a good wheel cleaner (Meguires Hot Rims) and a soft brush (paint brush) to agitate the dirt... rinse well and dry off with a microfibre so there are no watermarks.

For the brushed alloy, use a tar remover, or non-abrasive polish to remove the spots, then wax these areas to prevent dirt clinging again.

[sef]

Mark, I've left mine dirty... They now blend in with the rest of the car

I might give Meguiars a go on mine too...

[Ant FR]

i have a set of burnished JCW R105's so have the same polished finish.

Personally i remove mine from november till march to avoid winter dirt as its a killer. i stick the boggo standard 17's back on.

But one thing i ensure, never ever use any abrasives on them, never use alloy wheel cleaner, and clean them off weekly sto stop the build up of dirt,. Then polish them with regular car polish. i have also started applying wheel protector by T wax, really does seem to make the removal of dirt a lot easier.

As for the mat finish, only thing you do with that i suppose is to makesure yo fully dry it so no water marks etc. Unfortunately that seems to be the look of those wheels, a bit like GP alloys, they never ever look 100% clean. But they still look nice though

[Streeters]

NIce One Sef,

Thanks for the input guys, I'll try waxing first to see if that works, Another forum has also suggested hot rims, So I might try that if option 1 fails, If all else fails, i'll get them stripped and laquered so they have a gloss finish cos that is really gonna irritate me i think.

[Streeters]

Just as an update to this in case any sidewalk owners are interested, the other day I gave the car the full bifta wash & megs 3 step jobby, and when i'd finished i used the carnuba wax to clean the wheels(after washing and drying first) which actually worked a treat. so i gave them another coat of wax which brought a lovely sheen to the wheels. well chuffed, would have taken some pics as it took me all day to clean it, but within 10 minutes of finishing it was chucking it down with rain dontcha just love our weather in the UK