my brakes pads faded and my brakes were metal-on-metal for a little while. As a result, there was a lot of rust that was grinded off my brakes and got onto my wheels.
now it looks like the rust really messed up my wheels, it’s like caked on, like hardened on.
what can i do to get this rust off without damaging my wheels?
I had the same problem last year, except for the whole running metal on metal :S…All i did was take the tires off and sand the shit out of them to get the rust off, eventually working my way up to wet sanding them, they came out wiht no scratches at all and looking crisp and clean! Timely process but well worth it…If you have a dremmel tool to get into the tight spots of the wheels it would shave off a lot of time, probably take you about 4-5 hours for all 4 wheels to be done…But like i said, WELL WORTH IT!
Hydrochloric Acid is what I use at work to get caked on brake dust/rust off wheels. Spray it on with a windex type bottle, leave it for literally 10seconds and rinse it off. Then take a wash mit and some soapy water and scrub a dub-dub. Make sure to clean out the nozzle on the bottle after you are done, or it gets FUBAR’d.
**I usually do this only on OE wheels… Have on a couple aftermarket with no ill effects, but use to your own discretion. Wear a face mask (at least covering your mouth) and gloves if you like, but if you get it on you, just rinse it off as water neutralizes the acid.