Alcoa Wheels and Cleaners

P

patrick flowers

New member
Sep 19, 1997
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I finally got my new wheels and tires balanced today and thought I would
clean them up. I'd been waiting until all the handling was finished to
clean up all the paw prints and mounting soap. Well I was using soap
and water and the old soap streaks weren't coming off. I vaguely
remembered Paul Bartz mentioning not using wheel cleaners, but I had a
bottle of armor all "quick silver" that I use on the car alloys with no
problems. Evidently it's meant for wheels that have a clear coat finish
because as soon as it hit the alcoa's they turned white. I used a
couple words that I thought I'd forgotten.

I spent the next twenty minutes with a tube of simichrome polish(best
stuff I've ever seen for cleaning & polishing aluminum) cleaning up the
mess. Looks like I'll be polishing the soap streaks off. Just thought
I'd let everyone know so you don't make the same mistake.

Patrick
- --
Patrick Flowers
Mailto:patri63

The GMC Motorhome Page
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com
 
Thanks for the warning. I have only used soap and water on mine and they
need to be cleaned after running through a rain last week.

Russ Bethel
rbethel
 
I used "Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish" after the wash/clean with soap &
water.
The came out great. So great that I now have to do all of 'em. (I started
with the fronts as they got new skins).

Heinz

>
>
> Thanks for the warning. I have only used soap and water on mine and they
> need to be cleaned after running through a rain last week.
>
> Russ Bethel
> rbethel
>
 
Patrick;

Get some polish and and buffing compound from Busch. The stuff works
great. I had some used Alcoas that I cleaned up and buffed and polished
with the Busch Alum. products and they shine like new chrome. The
gentleman that demoed the material for me has a slick GMC and it is on
the product label.

By the way NTB manager quoted $144.10 for the tire, I whipped out your
invoice and he gave me a song and dance about a cost of business factor
for each store. IE: The higher the cost of living in area the higher
the cost of the tire. I told him he was full of it and he matched your
price with out batting an eylash. Did your price include mounting and
balance?

Marcus

>
> I finally got my new wheels and tires balanced today and thought I would
> clean them up. I'd been waiting until all the handling was finished to
> clean up all the paw prints and mounting soap. Well I was using soap
> and water and the old soap streaks weren't coming off. I vaguely
> remembered Paul Bartz mentioning not using wheel cleaners, but I had a
> bottle of armor all "quick silver" that I use on the car alloys with no
> problems. Evidently it's meant for wheels that have a clear coat finish
> because as soon as it hit the alcoa's they turned white. I used a
> couple words that I thought I'd forgotten.
>
> I spent the next twenty minutes with a tube of simichrome polish(best
> stuff I've ever seen for cleaning & polishing aluminum) cleaning up the
> mess. Looks like I'll be polishing the soap streaks off. Just thought
> I'd let everyone know so you don't make the same mistake.
>
> Patrick
> --
> Patrick Flowers
> Mailto:patri63
>
> The GMC Motorhome Page
> http://www.gmcmotorhome.com
 
>
> By the way NTB manager quoted $144.10 for the tire, I whipped out
> your invoice and he gave me a song and dance about a cost of business
> factor for each store. IE: The higher the cost of living in area the
> higher the cost of the tire. I told him he was full of it and he
> matched your price with out batting an eylash.

Glad I could help.

> Did your price include mounting and balance?

Mounting only. They couldn't balance the Alcoa's. If you want, let
them try to balance one. Take it off the machine roll it around and
have them spin it again. I'll bet you a Diet Coke, it won't be in
balance.

Patrick
- --
Patrick Flowers
Mailto:patri63

The GMC Motorhome Page
http://www.gmcmotorhome.com
 
Some tire cleaners (e. g. Whestley's) have chemicals that will pit the
Alcoa wheel, because they are not clear coated.

Alcoa has a cleaning kit out now, that is a three step process (i. e.
cleaner, polish and sealant). It is marketed by Haltec Corp,
800-321-6471.

I ordered it and found it works good.

Paul Bartz

> From: Patrick Flowers [SMTP:patri63]
> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 1998 7:10 PM
> Subject: GMC: Alcoa Wheels and Cleaners
>
> I finally got my new wheels and tires balanced today and thought I
> would clean them up. I'd been waiting until all the handling was
> finished to clean up all the paw prints and mounting soap. Well I was
> using soap and water and the old soap streaks weren't coming off. I
> vaguely remembered Paul Bartz mentioning not using wheel cleaners, but
> I had a bottle of armor all "quick silver" that I use on the car
> alloys with no problems. Evidently it's meant for wheels that have a
> clear coat finish because as soon as it hit the Alcoa's they turned
> white. I used a couple words that I thought I'd forgotten.
>
> I spent the next twenty minutes with a tube of Simichrome polish (best
> stuff I've ever seen for cleaning & polishing aluminum) cleaning up
> the mess. Looks like I'll be polishing the soap streaks off. Just
> thought I'd let everyone know so you don't make the same mistake.
 
When you tire of polishing your aluminum wheels check out this site for some
protective coating.

http://www.nyalic.com/ These people make a coating for alloy wheels and
other important stuff ( space shuttle ). It is also repackaged and sold by
Eastman.

Maybe someone in the Atlanta area could check this stuff out on the inside
surface of their wheels.

Dave Mumert
dmumert
 
Dave,

After polishing their first aluminum wheel I think everyone is tired of
polishing aluminum wheels :). If they just didn't look so good afterwards!

We tried some of the Nyalic from Eastwood and did not have very good
results on the Alcoas on our trailer. Even though we cleaned the wheels
with thinner after we polished them, the Nyalic still beaded up on the
smooth surface of the wheels. We did use it with various results on some
of the bolts and fittings on our GMC. Many of the steel pieces still
started to rust, while it does seem to be keeping the brass stuff nice.

We have found that a coat of wax really helps keep the wheels nice for a
while. We usually use Mothers mag and aluminum polish and then use wax
after that. We have had really good results with Auri. Yes, it is the
Auri that will protect your car from Hydrochloric acid and fire for over a
year :). The Auri is pretty abrasive which helps give the wheels a fine
polish and actually seems to last quite a while. It is very easy to apply
since it is a liquid. It also allows you to just wax the wheels every once
in a while instead of going the full polish route. We can't find Auri
anymore, so we have tried a Carnuba wax. This does seem to keep the wheels
pretty good, but doesn't have the abrasives to get the fine finish. If
anyone knows if Auri is still available anywhere please write me with the
information.

Zachary Zehnacker
Seemann Motorsports
zakz

PS - You guys have it lucky. We have a triple axle trailer that we tow
with our GMC. It was the Alcoas on the trailer that got us to get them for
the GMC. We have 12 Alcoas to polish now!

>
>When you tire of polishing your aluminum wheels check out this site for some
>protective coating.
>
>http://www.nyalic.com/ These people make a coating for alloy wheels and
>other important stuff ( space shuttle ). It is also repackaged and sold by
>Eastman.
>
>Maybe someone in the Atlanta area could check this stuff out on the inside
>surface of their wheels.
>
>
>Dave Mumert
>dmumert
>
>
 
http://auri.com/PRODUCTS.htm

This is the same company complete with flaming fire on the hood of a red
Mustang, but the site is fairly poor or under construction... Maybe call
one of their toll free numbers and see if they have a retailer or if they
only do direct sales.
- --

Regards,
John Dolan

jdolan
 
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