HELP!! Fuchs turned cloudy after washing.
 

Hey all,

There are too many threads that pop up on my search, so please forgive my redundancy here.

Anyhow, just came from the car wash (first time ever). Can't wash my car myself here in NY suburbs with the drought. It is in all hand wash and they did an excellent job, except for the wheels. I asked them not to spray any chemicals on the wheels, and their response was "don't worry, it's an all purpose cleaner." I explained that I didn't want the coating stripped from the wheels.

Anyhow, the car looks great, but the wheels have a white cloudy look to them now. I know, I've read about PH levels and what not. so please don't rub it in.

My question........how do I get the wheels back to normal? I hope I didn't mess them up too bad. They actually look cleaner than they used to, but the cloudiness is really bugging me. If I can't fix it, it's going right back to the car wash.

ANY INPUT IS GREATLY APPRECIATED!!

REGARDS,

3M imperial hand glaze and a lot of elbow grease. If that isn't cutting through it, use a drop of P21S multi-finish restorer, with the glaze as a base. That's on the paint. On the aluminum, more P21S, less 3M. Follow up with a good coat of wax, and never take it to the car wash again.

I had the same problem when I used purple cleaner on them. Use mguires paste wax on them. It should bring the luster back.

Steve

Try spraying some WD40 on a cloth and rubbing the wheel.

The Porsche way of looking after your Fuchs is vaseline but I find WD40 is less effort and works better.

You just can not take them through commercial car wash services...the bulk cleaner they use is way too strong. It is bad for the paint also. I did that once when I was feeling lazy and it took a lot of polishing to get the cloudy wheels shiny again.

Got to vote for the Vaseline.

I have been doing my Fuchs that way for a while now and the shine is very noticeable - doesn't remain 'greasy' as you might think.

Try it.

I had always thought that using Vaseline was an urban myth but would love to try it this weekend. For the past 2 years, I've used 3M Hand Glaze and P21, then a coat of wax. Do I just substitute the Vaseline for the wax?

back in high school my summer job was pressure washing big rigs, so i got to play with alot of chemicals :D
a common industrial "all-porpose" soap,which we used, was acid based, if not dilluted with enough water it could haze any soft metals.
if it's a white haze on your wheel then that's what they did, they had too strong of a soap mixture.
the ONLY way to clear it back up is either a jewlers rouge (i was told) or repolishing the rims from scratch.
this stuff would turn brand new freightliner fuel tanks to a smooth looking aluminum in less than 10 seconds in undiluted form (don't ask me how i know)
i think the car wash should be responsible, but they probably have a loophole around that.

Oh Brother,

thanks for the responses everyone. Right now, my boys are bathing in a big mess of vasoline. Used 1/4 of the big container. I'll leave it for a day or two. If that doesn't work, I guess I'll get some other products mentioned above, and start slaving away. As far as going back to the car wash, I think we all know where that will lead.......nowhere. It's not worth the extra aggravation, but I will give them my 2 cents of "comments."

Anyhow, I'll keep you updated.

thanks again,

regards,

I find that a good coat of wax provides good shine and protection while easy to apply/remove. Tried Vasoline and felt it was just too messy and time consuming.

Hey all,

The verdict is in..........I removed the vaso after about 24 hours, and I'm about 95% back to normal!! I've used vaso before, but didn't realize it would bring back the finish on damaged wheels. I'm very pleased. There is still a tiny bit of discoloration, but not enough for me to fuss about.

Thanks again everyone. I'll put another coating on soon.

regards,

Come on folks go to the tech section of Pelican and there is a write up on polishing fuchs. This guy wrote it for removing the black on the spokes of the rims. It is a long procedure for doing this and He has gone on to mention that household oven cleaner will remove the oxidation from the rims.....
I have seen some of the locals at the rod runs get their frames on their crotch rockets down to a high lusteroius aluminum. They commented to me that they use oven cleaner and a soft rag and work it until all of the paint has been removed. With this said I truely believe that oven cleaner will indeed remove oxidation from the rim (just do rim and not the spokes).

kooSmileWavy

Oven cleaner may also remove the anodising - be careful....