My Windstar's wheels are looking pretty bad, poor thing hasn't had a bath in weeks and cold is upon us. Does anyone have any good ideas I can use, when it warms up again, for removing brake dust? I can get most of it off with a lot of scrubbing, but can't get it all. I want to know if there is something out there that will help me out with all of it. Scrubbing isn't much of a problem, I can do that.
It's only my front two wheels. FYI, they are polished aluminum alloys. I am actually hoping for one last warm day so I can get to it before Spring. My Saturn is in near perfect condition (I still get asked if it is a new car, YEAH!!!), but her tow vehicle is looking shabby.
Also, can anyone recommend a good bug remover?

Thanks in advance for the help. It's nice to see a whole section dedicated to cleaning!!!

 

Clean them with car wash and then clay them, the clay should remove your brake dust problem, then apply your favorite polish/wax to protect them, clay will remove your bugs too unless they are etched into the clear coat, then you will need an abrasive product to repair the damaged area.

 

Some good quality wheel acid will do the trick. Professional products that aren't sold in stores are the best. You can get them off of the internet.

 

Where on the internet is a good place to buy it? I have not heard of wheel acid before. Thank you for the advice.

 

Most polished wheels are clear coated, the use of any acid will remove the clear coat and then your wheels will really look bad.

 

If you have a polished wheel and it's not clear coated, then never use any kind of wheel cleaner. The only way I would clean my Dad's Buick Park Avenue wheels was with acid, and the paint never came off. Done it at least 15 times.

I was the used car detailer at a dealership and I used wheel acid on pretty much every car that came in, which over the 3 years was probably at least 1000. I've never had clear coat come off of a wheel ever, but I don't want to guarantee you anything.

I've done plenty of Windstars and the ones with alloy wheels were a biatch to get clean -- the rough painted part in between the spokes. The only way I could get them clean was with acid. It all depends on how dirty your rims are and I couldn't tell you from over the computer. Acid can streak the rims if the wheels are hot or if it dries on them but usually you can get the streak off with break cleaner and a rag.

So it all depends on how much time you want to spend cleaning. Or just get some milder wheel cleaner from the store and try that. I don't like most store products because from my experience they've never worked as well as the products I used at the dealership.

Here are a lot of the products I used to use. http://www.pssales.com/

If you type in "detailing products" in a search engine you'll get a list of different brands of detailing products.