I've got a set of Mickey Thompson Classic Locks on my truck (17 in) that I bought used from an offroad shop. They had some corrosion on them when I bought them and I got some Black Diamond polish and worked on 'em. Couldn't get it off. Since then, I've tried some Mother's polish and a couple of others, but nothins working well to get rid of the corrosion and bring back the luster. I also tried some acid wash for big rigs that said it's safe for chrome and polished materials. Finally had SOME luck w/ Speedy polish and some fine steel wool, but not much. Mother's powerball didn't do anything at all. Anyone have any good ideas? I'd like to get them mint again, but I might end up painting them black if needed and buy new trim rings to offset it. Not sure.

 

Good luck man....that is a problem that I've notice with Mickey Thompsons. I had a set for about a year on another truck that I hardly ever let get dirty and they still looked like crap. I tried everything to get them back to being shiney but I gave up and bought new wheels.


~Nick

 

polished Aluminum I presume?

If so, go to a motorcycle place and ask for a product called Simichrome. Use it sparingly on a rag and if that stuff doesnt bring back the polish, you might as well forget about it.

 

The thing is, I think those wheels come with a clearcoat finish on them. So when corrosion gets between the clearcoat and the natural aluminum it can't be polished off.

 

If the wheels don't have the clearcoat, do like we do here on our Alcos on the semi's. First wet sand with 400 grit, then 600 grit. If it's not too bad start with the 600 grite. Then you poilish with the white rouse (sp), then red rouse (sp), We usually get our jewlers rouse (sp) from a truck acc. parts place. They usually come in 3" or so by 12" or so blocks.............

 

I run the mickey's and I get corrosion on the aluminum and rust on the chrome caps.

Here is what I do that works to clean them:

0000 steel wool and some off the shelf chrome polish...works great.
Chrome polish usually comes in about 6 oz bottles and is milky.

 

I had the same problem with my mickey thompson classic 2's. I bought them brand new and 7 months later I had to wet sand them and polish them back up. When I called mickey thompson up they told me tough luck and deal with it. My center caps also rusted but 0000 steel wool took care of that. If I could do it all over again I woulda gotten chrome plated aluminum rims and not worried about it. I despise these M/T rims.

 

Same boat here, if I only knew then what I know now..........Saving up for some SJ coils, new 17 or 18's and 35 inchers!

 

Yup. If I woulda known that they were bare aluminum I woulda never bought them. I'm debating getting new rims this summer but I really need to do billet and o-ring the head.

 

JFYI I've got 17s and a buddy of mine has 18" JAX wheels. We both have MT MTZs in 35" size. The tires that go on the 18" rims are WAAAAYYYY beefier tires. First of all, they're wider, but that I already knew b/c they're like 35/14.5 or 35/13.5 (can't remember). BUT they are also way taller even though they're both 35s. And the lugs are much deeper and the side lugs are also way bigger. Actually, my MTZs are almost the exact same height as my little brother's 33" Goodyear MTRs. Kind of dissapointing. The MTZs for the 18" rims were about $140 more though.

I'm taking my girlfriend to visit grad schools towrds the end of next week, and I'd like to get these rims cleaned up beforehand, but if I can't I'm going to look into new ones or paint these suckers b/c they look like crap and make my truck look like crap even when it's clean.

Anyone ever used those black Moto Metal wheels? You can get em for like $565 shipped, and I saw them on a lifted Suburban once that looked pretty good, but I'm not sure how good the quality/strength is.