THamilton

We just returned from 3200 miles of driving to Carlisle, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. While cleaning my '99 coupe up from this trip I found spots all over the polished rims of my Fikse Mach V wheels.

I've tried everything from Zaino soap, Z6, clay bar, Meguiar's all purpose cleaner, vinegar, and Simple Green. Nothing touches these spots.

They seem to be shallow pits.

Does anyone have any idea what happened and what I can do to restore the mirror-like finish the rims started the trip with?

This is a real bummer. This trip was the first time in nearly 3 years that the car hass even seen rain. Now I'm afraid I've got acid rain spots, but it seems strange that only the polished rims were affected. No spots on the anodized spokes, the polished center caps, or anywhere else on the car.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

hcvone

If they are "pits" then it sounds like something "ate" into the aluminum or the clear coating, if they are coated. If there are slight "bumps" you may want to try clay on the wheels.

KLO

If your wheels are NOT clear coated, sounds like you need a metal polish like Blue Magic or Wenol.

rubyred93

THamilton -

While a photo would be extremely helpful in this particular case, upon close inspection is there any possibility that they are actually small stone chips?

I have a rim that has these small "pits" as you call them, where the clear has been compromised by stone chips. When you touch them, what do they actually feel like? Can you feel where the clear coat (if you have one) is missing?

THamilton

The rims on Fikse wheels are polished aluminum without any clear coat.



The worst spots feel like depressions. You can almost catch a finger nail on them. I thought about stone chips too, but the spots only show up on the polished areas, even clear up beneath the forged spokes.

I can't believe that one drive in the rain and one drive on wet roads is enough to cause this kind of oxidation. If this is typical for polished wheels, no one would ever put them on a car they plan to drive.

It's like this set of cheap steak knives I had once. If you left them to soak overnight in water, the rivets in the handles actually got foam-like junk on them as they oxidized. Needless to say, the rivets got to looking very bad, very quickly.

I've e-mailed Fikse. We'll see what they have to say.

JWSchmidt3

Sorry to hear about your wheels. I stay away from polished aluminum for this very reason. :cheers:

bob98

For What it is worth, I have the same problem on my BBS wheels. Since it is a daily driver, I have resigned myself to living with the pits to keep the look of the wheels.

THamilton

Well today I called Fikse and the dealer I bought the wheels through.

The dealer was useless. Absolutely no compassion for a toy caught in one rain storm. He told me to go to Trak Auto for Mothers Aluminum polish. i couldn't believe it. I'll try it but I'm not expecting it to be a simple clean-up job.

Fikse was more understanding. At least they agreed to check out my picture and give me an RGA number to send the wheels in for evaluation. If their evaluation shows a manufacturing problem they will "do what it takes to keep me a happy Fikse owner". If they believe I caused the pits, I pay for round trip shipping and get instructions on how to care for the wheels.

Bummer. Painted wheels for me from now on.

THamilton

OK, for anyone who is interested, I've followed Fikse's recommendation of using Wenol polish. I did the second to the worst wheel and after about 90 minutes of work, it looks pretty decent.

It still POs me that so little exposure to rain caused so much damage, but at least I can get the wheels back to near their original appearance.

Once I finish all four, I'll go over them with Wenol Fine polish and the Wenol Wax. All of these are for unpainted/plated metal surfaces and claim to offer a high degree of protection, but so did the wax I used in the first place.

forrest

You might want to consider using a 4" cotton buffing wheel in a drill, locked on high speed.

Remove the wheel from the car (might get messy), smear the polish on the rim, bring the drill up to speed and LIGHTLY apply it to the wheel.

The trick is to keep it moving (or 1 spot will end up shinier than the rest), and to not use too much pressure (it'll burn the aluminum, which actually turns it blue).

I'd suggest doing 1/3 of the rim at a time, then buffing the area well with a quality terry cloth towel before moving on to the next section of the wheel.

The drill will save some serious time over use by hand.

BTW, I'd guess you drove through something to leave the marks on the wheel, or you hit a puddle when the wheels were really hot (spirited driving?) and spotted them.

I use this method on my billet wheels twice a year to really clean/shine 'em up.