Caked on brake dust

AWD-Tony · Oct 5, 2019

What’s the easiest way to remove caked on and I mean caked on brake dust? I tried this with power washer but it’s didn’t work well

Thank
Tony

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EC17PSE · Oct 5, 2019

You either have to let it set and eat into it but most of the time its baked into the paint from the temp it comes off. I never get mine off and its worse with racing compounds

1990TSIAWDTALON · Oct 5, 2019

I have had pretty good luck with these Tony. I can't remember which one I thought worked BEST tho.
Don't get old.......

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BLACK'98DSM · Oct 5, 2019

LA's Totally Awesome.

Works everytime for me. Don't breath it in though, it will literally knock you out.

Kryndon · Oct 5, 2019

On a side note, I wonder where that "Eagle One" brand got their logo inspiration from... :talon:

AWD-Tony · Oct 5, 2019

I honestly don’t know if the off the shelf stuff will work this stuff is at least 2mm on certain area. I was thinking about chemical guy product. Or do I just spend more money get them powder-coated :ohdamn:

EC17PSE · Oct 5, 2019

tk106 said:
I honestly don’t know if the off the shelf stuff will work this stuff is at least 2mm on certain area. I was thinking about chemical guy product. Or do I just spend more money get them powder-coated

You want to soak the wheels good. For my wheels i use Sonax and it does decent work of it. I wish i took a pic of my wheels today! They are super bad but the sonax does a decent job of it but still some bits do remain and anything more corrosive eats the paint

AWD-Tony · Oct 5, 2019

ec17pse said:
You want to soak the wheels good. For my wheels i use Sonax and it does decent work of it. I wish i took a pic of my wheels today! They are super bad but the sonax does a decent job of it but still some bits do remain and anything more corrosive eats the paint

Ok. It’s a shame that some had these powdercoated at one point and then they said F it. They’re not bent. It has some road rash. Honestly picked them up so I have a full spare so I might sell the other 3. We’ll see. Tires are fairly new too

Doubleot · Oct 5, 2019

I'd suggest sonax wheel cleaner or Adam's wheel cleaner. You want something to chemically break down the dust but not hurt the finish of your wheels. I've had good luck with those two brands keeping my white evo 8 wheels clean.

motomattx · Oct 5, 2019

Oddly enough, Evapo-rust in the gel, brush it on, let it sit all night and then car was the pressure wash it off, I used it just to get the rust stains from the rotors off, and it cleans everything insanely well, you might have to use a sponge to scrub the next day if it dries too much, but still its great and wont damage paint and is non toxic.

AWD-Tony · Oct 6, 2019

Doubleot said:
I'd suggest sonax wheel cleaner or Adam's wheel cleaner. You want something to chemically break down the dust but not hurt the finish of your wheels. I've had good luck with those two brands keeping my white evo 8 wheels clean.

Thanks man! I will try one of those

AWD-Tony · Oct 6, 2019

motomattx said:
Oddly enough, Evapo-rust in the gel, brush it on, let it sit all night and then car was the pressure wash it off, I used it just to get the rust stains from the rotors off, and it cleans everything insanely well, you might have to use a sponge to scrub the next day if it dries too much, but still its great and wont damage paint and is non toxic.

Haven’t heard of evaporust. I’ll look into it. Thanks Matt!

d1prospect · Oct 6, 2019

Spray it and agitate with a brush. I use “LA awesome” and a little elbow grease.

1990TSIAWDTALON · Oct 6, 2019

Toothbrush......

lasthope05 · Oct 6, 2019

You're to need a strong acid or highly alkaline cleaner for baked on brake dust. Sonax won't touch it, nor will LA awesome, and chemical guys have nothing aggressive in their lineup. Don't buy into the iron fallout removers also. They are great for microscopic iron particles but not real heavy deposits.

If you don't care about the finish. Navel jelly I'll remove it all. Or if you want to be a bit milder on the other spectrum, oven cleaner.

I used to detail for a living years ago. All the boutique stuff is not aggressive at all.

AWD-Tony · Oct 6, 2019

lasthope05 said:
You're to need a strong acid or highly alkaline cleaner for baked on brake dust. Sonax won't touch it, nor will LA awesome, and chemical guys have nothing aggressive in their lineup. Don't buy into the iron fallout removers also. They are great for microscopic iron particles but not real heavy deposits.

If you don't care about the finish. Navel jelly I'll remove it all. Or if you want to be a bit milder on the other spectrum, oven cleaner.

I used to detail for a living years ago. All the boutique stuff is not aggressive at all.

I was going to try sonax but the parts store didn’t carry that. I also believe the off the self standard wheel cleaner won’t work and it’ll have to be removed chemically as doubleot and mottomattx stated.

As far as the finish goes, they’re not in the best shape, maybe a 6/7 out of 10. But I’d like to clean them up without making them look worse. I’m going to try naval gel and oven cleaner on a small spot deep in the barrel as a test spot since I already have those.

Thanks everyone for your input!!

1990TSIAWDTALON · Oct 6, 2019

Tony, I use oven cleaner on the aluminum block motors I have built and it removes varnish but only leave it on for 5 to 10 minutes and rinse. Dont let it dry. A little scrub brush like brass helps.
Just thought I'd throw that out there. It works well but is caustic so rinse it all off to nuetralize it.
After I do that, I have to clean with dawn soap and water several times to not leave any in the engine. That motor has almost 20k on it now and is in my DD Saturn SC2.
I'm not sure how it effects the finish on a smooth surface. Removes carbon so its pretty aggressive.

AWD-Tony · Oct 6, 2019

1990TSIAWDTALON said:
Tony, I use oven cleaner on the aluminum block motors I have built and it removes varnish but only leave it on for 5 to 10 minutes and rinse. Dont let it dry. A little scrub brush like brass helps.
Just thought I'd throw that out there. It works well but is caustic so rinse it all off to nuetralize it.
After I do that, I have to clean with dawn soap and water several times to not leave any in the engine. That motor has almost 20k on it now and is in my DD Saturn SC2.
I'm not sure how it effects the finish on a smooth surface. Removes carbon so its pretty aggressive.

Good ideas to use soap to get clean it off. I will do so and update. Thanks Marty!!

Mello · Oct 6, 2019

I know oven cleaner will damage paint and powder coat. It will etch into the surface.

AWD-Tony · Oct 6, 2019

Mello said:
I know oven cleaner will damage paint and powder coat. It will etch into the surface.

Ok. No oven cleaner then. Thanks Mello!!

AWD-Tony · Oct 6, 2019

Naval jelly and elbow grease. This took 5 minutes just for this area. Didn’t take a before pic but the next spoke will give you an ideas how bad it is.

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BLACK'98DSM · Oct 6, 2019

lasthope05 said:
nor will LA awesome,

Yes it will, if you use it straight. Don't mix with water like it suggests.

BLACK'98DSM · Oct 6, 2019

tk106 said:
Naval jelly and elbow grease. This took 5 minutes just for this area. Didn’t take a before pic but the next spoke will give you an ideas how bad it is.

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Looks pretty good. Just stick with it and keep it up!

AWD-Tony · Oct 7, 2019

BLACK'98DSM said:
Looks pretty good. Just stick with it and keep it up!

I'm going to try sonax plus. It claims to be 30% stronger than their regualr sonax. Feel like it'll take forever using naval gel. Thanks, Soloman!

BLACK'98DSM · Oct 7, 2019

"Solomon" o

Call me whatever you want!

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