Making OEM Rays Shine?

[allaboutthepasty]

Ok, so a little bit of background info. I recently bought a second hand Rays alloy as I took a chunk out of mine. It came from the breakers and is in need of a refurb. My other 3 corners look fine in my opinion, no flaking or bubbling, laquer I presume is ok as nothing seems to pit to them, so this side of Christmas I can't justify getting the lot done. The only thing is now, I know that my new acid dipped and resprayed wheel is going to show up my other 3, regardless of how good I think they are at the moment.

 

I've never used any kind of wheel cleaning products before, I just shampoo my alloys at the end of every wash. I've used the search button and read tips on cleaning wheels. Is my best bet just to use a good ph neutral wheel cleaner to get the other 3 to shine as best possible or is there anything else I can do bar a refurb?

 

Thanks in advance, Chris.

[Ebized]

Clean the other 3 and leave the new one dirty, and wait until after Christmas

 

Cos, it's doubtful any normal cleaning will get close to what a refurb has done

[ATTAK Z]

chuckled

[GMballistic]

You could try some "rim wax" Chis but unfortunately as Ebized mentioned the other three wheels will never look as good as the refurbed alloys.

[allaboutthepasty]

Pretty much what I expected to be honest I'll have a look for some decent wheel cleaning product and get the others cleaned up. Will get the others done after the winter as I'll hopefully have a house bought by then with a driveway & garage. No more street parking for me to kerb them etc! Cheers guys.

[GMballistic]

When you buy your house make sure the garage allows you enough room to park the car in it and that you can open the doors. Sounds nuts I know but heard some horror stories of new build homes with totally unusable garages for anything other than just storage space. Good luck.

[allaboutthepasty]

Haha, my other car is a Mini, which has priority over pretty much everything, including the missus, so that will be in the garage. It fits in small spaces.

[GMballistic]

Haha, my other car is a Mini, which has priority over pretty much everything, including the missus, so that will be in the garage. It fits in small spaces.

A Mini never has priority over a Zed don't you know this?!! "Zeds come first" ~ It is the first rule of Zed club. Ha ha. You should be fine then if it's only your Mini going in the garage.

[allaboutthepasty]

I thought the first rule of Zed club was don't talk about Zed club?

[GMballistic]

I thought the first rule of Zed club was don't talk about Zed club?

No, that's "Fight Club" you're thinking of. You generally can't shut Zed car owners up about talking about them once they start.

[sipar69]

You could try giving them a polish by hand with something mild like Autoglym Super Resin polish before using a wax or sealant on them. That might freshen up the shine and bring them closer to the refurbed wheel.

[allaboutthepasty]

Ahh I have some of that in the garage. I'll have a go tomorrow, cheers. To be fair it's not too far out, the other wheels must have been done fairly recently before I bought the car.

[downhuman]

Use a hand polish or machine (on the faces) - start with a cleanser like autobrite's eliminator, then apply a filler heavy glaze (poorboys black hole) and then a decent sealant like FK1000p