If your aluminum car rims are looking a little grungy lately, you may want to know how to clean up the grime & give those rims a showroom shine! Luckily, it doesn’t take any special knowledge, and all you need is $20 worth of materials, and a little free time! Let’s start going over how to clean your aluminum car rims, shall we?
What you’ll need:
- A Sponge
- A Bucket
- Wheel & Tire Cleaner such as Eagle One All Wheel & Tire Cleaner
- Aluminum Polish (Optional)
- 2 or 3 Microfiber Towels (Optional)
- A Garden Hose with a Sprayer Attachment
First, use the garden hose and sprayer attachment to rinse down your rims one by one, starting at the top of each rim & working your way down. This will remove light dirt and debris, and help loosen the more stubborn bits so that the cleaner can do it’s work more effectively later.
Once you’ve rinsed each rim, spray each of them liberally with the wheel and tire cleaner and let the cleaner sit on the rims for a minute or two, this will help remove any stubborn dirt, brake dust, and other contaminants from the aluminum. While you’re waiting, fill your bucket with water & drop the sponge in. If your rims are especially dirty, you may wish to add some soap to the bucket as well. After that, go ahead & use the garden hose again to rinse the cleaning solution off of your rims. Most of the dirt should be rinsed away with the cleaner, but don’t worry if there’s still some left. We’ll deal with that next.
Grab the sponge and bucket, and scrub any remaining dirt off of your rims making sure to get into all of the little cracks and crevices so that your rims look their absolute best when you’re done. Once you’re done scrubbing, rinse everything off one last time and use a microfiber towel, beach towel, or whatever is handy to dry off the water so that you don’t leave any water spots behind. If you chose not to use any aluminum polish, you’re done! If you want to give your rims that extra special touch, keep reading!
Now that your car is equipped with 4 sparkling clean rims, it’s time to make those rims really shine with a little polish. You’ll want to have your polish, and at least 2 microfiber towels nearby. Apply the polish according to the instructions on the container with one microfiber towel. Work one rim at a time here, and once you have worked the polish into the rim with the first cloth, use the second cloth to buff everything to a shine. Move on to the next rim, and repeat until all of your rims are gleaming like new!
