Title pretty much sums it up. Bought a used Escort and the Silver painted wheel covers have a brown rusty coating on them. I think its from the brake dust, tried cleaning it with car wash soap and a fairly stiff brush with no luck. Any ideas?
Cleaning silver painted wheel covers
- Thread starter jcwit
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You could try to sand them down or atleast clean them up as well as possible and then spray paint them silver. Shouldn't look that bad on an escort.
If you don't want to do that, I sure walmart carries replacement wheel covers for cheap......you could even get spinners!
If you don't want to do that, I sure walmart carries replacement wheel covers for cheap......you could even get spinners!
Originally Posted By: jcwit
Title pretty much sums it up. Bought a used Escort and the Silver painted wheel covers have a brown rusty coating on them. I think its from the brake dust, tried cleaning it with car wash soap and a fairly stiff brush with no luck. Any ideas?
Mother's FX Wheel Cleaner, or else Turtle Wax Ice Wheel Cleaner (which comes with a free detachable brush).
Title pretty much sums it up. Bought a used Escort and the Silver painted wheel covers have a brown rusty coating on them. I think its from the brake dust, tried cleaning it with car wash soap and a fairly stiff brush with no luck. Any ideas?
Mother's FX Wheel Cleaner, or else Turtle Wax Ice Wheel Cleaner (which comes with a free detachable brush).
Mr. Clean Magic Eraser + a little water = works.
Just use a standard wheel cleaner... I like CG Diablo... but any OTC product will be fine. If the cleaner doesn't get it break out the clay bar...
Some time ago, a friend of mine gave me the 14" wheel covers from his early 90's Dodge Spirit/Plymouth Acclaim and they were coated with brake dust. As I remember, Simple Green or even Purple Power didn't work. I soaked them in the laundry tub. On the laundry shelves above my head(where my wife keeps all laundry/bathroom products) was a can of Lisol Bathroom Tub and Tile cleaner. You wouldn't beleive the results. When I was done cleaning the silver wheel covers, they looked brand new, with the exception of a few scratches. I dabbed the scratches with some silver touch up paint and slapped the covers on my daughters old Honda Accord. I also went to the Dollar Store and bought 4 little round side mirrors(the ones that you stick on your outside sideview mirrors) and put one on each of the centers of the wheel covers and they looked great! On the center of these particular wheel covers there was a round indentation where an emblem might go. This is where I stuck on the little round mirrors. It was a perfect fit.
On some cars, like any Honda the silver paint is so thin that they start to peel even if you don't use any strong chemicals to clean your wheel covers.
On our old Honda I used some sand paper to remove the original paint, then spray painted them with Dupli-Color gray/silver paint and it matched the original color exactly, not bad for $7 spent on 4 wheel covers.
On our old Honda I used some sand paper to remove the original paint, then spray painted them with Dupli-Color gray/silver paint and it matched the original color exactly, not bad for $7 spent on 4 wheel covers.
I ended up using Ajax Cleanser w/bleach and a nylon pan scruber, worked great. Didn't want to spend any money on it as replacement ones are available for around $15.00 a set of 4 at Wally World.
Nice!
What size are the Escort's covers. Are the Escort wheel covers factory? If so, factory covers(all mfg's) are very tough. The after marked wheel covers are made of a hard ABS plastic that will crack if bumped too hard where as the factory covers on all cars are much better. You can actually bend(to a point) the factory covers with out breaking them.
What size are the Escort's covers. Are the Escort wheel covers factory? If so, factory covers(all mfg's) are very tough. The after marked wheel covers are made of a hard ABS plastic that will crack if bumped too hard where as the factory covers on all cars are much better. You can actually bend(to a point) the factory covers with out breaking them.
Ya I know the WallyWorld break easily. The're cheap in cost and cheap in quality. The ones I cleaned up are the org. Ford caps 14" size, can you imagine that in a 8 yr. old car.
Nice idea Char Baby. 
My '93 tempo had the stainless covers so I never had to deal with the brake dust build up until my cavalier and when we had the oem covers on our only car now.
My '93 tempo had the stainless covers so I never had to deal with the brake dust build up until my cavalier and when we had the oem covers on our only car now.- Status
