cleaning brake dust

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm trying to return some MSW alloy rims to street duty after

several years of dedicated track use. As a result, they have

some pretty permanent-looking deposits of brake dust from

my Hawk Blue brake pads. Hawk Blues are great for

stopping, but have a reputation for sticky dust, which I can

vouch for. I've tried P21 wheel cleaner followed by P21 wash,

scraping the deposits with a wood stick, and cursing. Is there

anything I can try before resorting to bead-blasting and

repainting?

Thanks,

Ian

'76 BMW M2002

[Guest Anonymous]

As a last step before bead blasting, try using a light duty scotch

brite pad. I just recovered to reasonably cosmetic shape a set of

bottle caps on a 325 that had years of brake dust accumulated. It

took lots of cleaner and about 30 minutes of hard work per wheel.

Chris B.

'73 ex-Malaga

[Guest Anonymous]

wheel in a tub with a solution of wheel cleaner( or maybe some of that purple clean stuff they sell for grime clean-up) + water. Seems that a good soaking should loosen the baked-on dust and allow you to rub it off w/ a scoth-brite green pad. sure is cheaper than going directly to the blaster/powder coater. Beware! that purple stuff is very powerful and may not be safe for your wheel coating. Maybe simple green would be a better "solution". Making enough wheel cleaner + water in a tun could get expensive if you had to buy a bunch of the single wheels cleaner bottles. Good luck- hope you get a clean result.