The gauntlet has been laid down

[txredgt]

After all of the people who I work with know I detail my car and take it very seriously one of the ladies mentioned how she can't get her wheels clean. Being the young buck with the Adam's goodies I decided to give it a whirl. Well I am going to post up some before pics and see what everyone's ideas and opinions are on them. They look toast but maybe just maybe I can squeeze some life out of them.

 

 

I know the process is going to consist of APC, DS, and clay for sure. Any other things I could try to get them off? Btw its a good ol plastic knock off piece too so that's what has me thinking there might not be much I can do to it. Any input is welcome before I tackle the job tomorrow!

[MrVette83]

[WheelMaker]

Those things are done.

 

Better to sand and shoot. Spend $5 on Silver spray paint and she'll think you're a hero. Of course, credit should go to Adam's, as far as she knows!

[txredgt]

Haha no if it was my managers ride then it might be the looks aspects ya'll are wanting.. good thing the gf doesn't frequent here at all otherwise ya'll might find me gone for a good while

 

I was really just interested in seeing if I could even get the stuff to budge off it, that was why I was curious and took it in. I doubt I will work anymore on them as I think she already got a new pair from the stealership, only 300 bucks total later for plastic. Oh well not my concerns. Just was wanting to show a lil hard work off.

[StormChaser]

Goodness....someone mentions a girl and yall go nutty!! Geesh

[Doug123]

If that's what her wheel covers look like, what's the rest of the car look like?

[texn884]

We want pictures of her, the heck with the wheel covers go to Wal-Mart and buy her some sweet new ones.

[MikeS]

Those aren't wheels

 

But good luck if you tackle them!

[AudiOx]

Shoot. If she's that purty, just buy the new or used ones and say you refinished them. ;-)

[Team Adam's]

Pics of the girl...NOW!!!

[Z71_Denali]

 

use some degreaser and a scotchbrite if you don't want to sand. don't waste any APC on them

 

if you spray them, lay a couple coats of Adhesion Promoter down, then filler primer, then sand that, then base coat, and finally clear coat. i wouldn't bother wet sanding the final coat. from the looks of it, this isn't going on a show car

[Team Adam's]

Those are a lost cause... I'd venture to guess the buildup of brakedust full of metallic started to oxidize when wet and pretty much destroyed the surface underneath it.

 

You'd be better served to just to to town with heavy grit sandpaper, strip them down as even as you can and rattle can a new finish versus trying to 'save' them.

[Chase@InsanePaint]

Is this chick a hottie for you to be ding this?

LMAO!!!!! Right........ That's what I was thinkin.....

[texn884]

Is this chick a hottie for you to be ding this?

[txredgt]

As you can see I think the scotchbrite was the beter choice, maybe even sandpaper would be better than that.

[txredgt]

Here are the after pictures. I am not getting paid or anything so this was kind of a lets see if I can do it sort of thing. I didn't go for complete perfection on the areas I worked, just wanted to see how they would react to what. Here is the end results of about 5-10 min with each area. The one spoke that looks the cleanest was done with only APC and the scotchbrite. As you can see there is an area on there that looks darker like I went through a top layer of the plastic. The other cleaned one was a mix. Clay and DS on the area closer to the hub area and then a little more scotchbrite towards the outer edge of the rim. I think that if I absolutely needed to get them clean I probably could but I'm not sure I would want to. I would most likely take plenty of scotchbrite to them and spraypaint. Here are the pictures:

 

 

and for those curious, I save my old clay that I use on the paint for rough areas such as the inner fender lips and jobs just like this where I don't want to use a brand new piece and then it can get thrown away. NO NEW CLAY WAS HARMED IN THE PROCESS, promise

[MAYBEN]

post some after pics

[txredgt]

Alright so after some elbow grease tonight I found that APC and a scotchbrite pad worked pretty good but with it being plastic you have to be careful as to not go too far with it. The clay took longer and wasn't as good as the prior method. I only did most of the area of 2 of the spokes so to speak of the plastic. I will post pics tomorrow to show ya what I was able to accomplish. I would say I spent 2x as much with the clay vs the apc and scotchbrite. Spraypaint would still be the best solution but you would need to prep it pretty good beforehand.

[mcotton]

[txredgt]

I think I am still going to do at least a test section to see what it can do. I can't tell if its brake dust that has embedded in the plastic or if its something else. The spray paint idea isn't all that bad though

[Oldman Cadillac]

You'll ruin your clay trying to help. I say scrub the heck out of 'em. If nothing works, nothing lost. Good luck

[Team Adam's]

Don't waste one drop of product on those things.

[AudiOx]

$50+$15 S&H Buy It Now on eBay

2007 2008 09 2010 Saturn Aura hubcaps wheel covers 17" | eBay

 

The $3 can of spray paint will work too, but you have to deal with masking the bolts and centercaps too, plus some level of sanding to get it to a 'spray-paintable' state.

How much is your time and your precious Adam's products worth to you?

 

You could also look at scrap yards.

[Golf for Life]

OMG for some reason I thought these were wheels. You could try APC then black spray paint, and call it a day.

[MichiganSRT8]

Worse comes to worse, a $3.00 can of spray paint will work wonders!

 

^^^+111111, get a flat black spray can and murder those out! they are already dead so paint em black

[texn884]

Toss them and save your time and products. Id hate to see what her car looks like,