mschuyler

Chrome Z51-type wheels. The front wheels are easy. A round of polish and they're done. The rear wheels, however, though not physically pitted, are extremely dirty with some sort of residue that takes a great deal of elbow grease to get off. They look pitted, but they are not. With persistence can get them clean. What's going on here? The only difference I see is the placement of the brake pads, which are on the front end for the rear wheels and on the back end for the front wheels. Is there any reason why the rear wheels should take so much abuse? What is the best chrome polish to use on them? Thanks for any attention to this.

cmonkey713

Sounds like maybe the front has ceramic low dusting brake pads and the rears have either an OEM or soft comp. performance pads. As for cleaning, Sonex has a wheel cleaning product that will remove the metallic brake pad residue you might try. Many times wheel cleaners will not remove all the residue. I would use a good chrome polish with an electric drill attachment like a ball or cone and try that. It may take hours to get them back into shape. Use a good wheel wax after cleaning to preserve and protect.

strand rider

turtle wax chrome polish , little bottle with white liquid inside

IT is great stuff, also mentioned in an above post in this section, in answer to a guy seeking exceptional products, stuff that pops.

​​​​​​​ I tried another cleaner , and it worked well , but it was just red acid in a bottle, which worked like I expected, but I didn't think far enough ahead to consider that I didn't want acid on my driveway. Chrome is hard, acid just washes off, and you can identify this type of common cleaner by the not safe for anything other than chrome surface warnings on the bottle. .