Cleaning ugly 1st gen wheels

How to clean your ugly wheels on you Toyota Tacoma. My wheels that I had where on a 02 tacoma, I just recently upgraded to the 2018 trd off-road wheels, kinda feel like going back to my old ones. Here’s my what I did.
But some muriatic acid from any hardware store. Put the acid into a bottle, dilute it a little with some water. I recommend putting a mask and gloves on to use this stuff but you make that decision. Spray it on the wheels and let it sit for about 30 seconds to a minute,then start scrubbing the wheels with a brush, I’d grab a decent size brush and a tooth brush aswell to get into the hard to reach places, plan on throwing these away when your done. Once scrubbed spray off the acid and repeat the cycle till they see how you want them. There’s really no need to mask of the tire, if you rinse the tire of within a couple of minutes of spraying, just try to avoid the tire as much as possible, and be careful of white lettering on the tire it will probably take that off. Hope that help, just message me if you have any more questions. IMPORTANT watch for over spray, when spraying the acid and rinsing the wheels I heard this stuff will eat paint, just rinse it of quickly it it gets onto anything. Also this probably rust your wheels weights, atleast I think it was what caused mine to rust, but I never payed any attention before

 

Jeez. Muriatic Acid is a bit excessive, that stuff is not good for you.

Most people would use paint remover and a wire brush or wire cup on an angle grinder.

Looks good though.

 

if you wash your wheels regularly, they won't get that bad

 

I tried to take some precautions when spraying the stuff. I wore are waterproof pants, gloves glasses, boots, long sleeves and a mask. I looked like I was making meth doing this in my driveway. But the result speak for themselves, even thought I ended up buying new wheels and month later.

 

I bought the truck used, about 5 months ago, in the pictures the wheels looked great but once I got to see the truck in person, the wheel looked like garbage but it didn’t stop me from purchasing the truck. However during my ownership the truck has definitely make a come back during my ownership. My brother is a automotive detailer on the side and has done a full paint correction on the truck taking him about 20 hours. I was the truck about once a week now during my ownership so my new wheels will never get that bad.

 

dare I say.... oven cleaner?

 

Yah that might have been a better option, didn’t try it, and hopefully I neve find myself in the situation again where I need to try it. But what I did worked for me.

 

Looks like it might have eaten the clear off of your wheels. The wheel is a different color from the center cap now.

 

You like the ugly TRD wheels? So do I! Looks like the Acid did the trick.

 

are these aluminum alloys the same basic material/finish as my 15s

my wheels have never gotten this surface rash (whatever it is) and are easily cleaned with WD40, the insides where the brake dust/road grime accumulates might need oven cleaner to clean up thoroughly?

 

Honestly I really don’t know how much I like them. Imma get bigger tires hopefully before winter and put them one. And there’s a company that make vinyl that goes over the machined finish so you can black out the wheels. I’m going to try that and if I still don’t love them, imma put back on the original. Here’s a pick of them blacked out, and the wildpeaks in going to use for a tire.

 

Had the same situation.
Used paint stripper and brush, sprayed wheel paint silver, 7 coats clear. They look pretty good again.