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Author Topic: Cleaning Harley Cast Solid Rear Wheel  (Read 3943 times)

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ltank

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Cleaning Harley Cast Solid Rear Wheel
« on: March 22, 2015, 04:55:22 PM »

The wheel is 16" Cast Solid Rear Wheel like on  Fatboy. It is dull and greasy. I can get rid of the grease with Gunk. The wheel is cast and rough , so can't be easily polished. The outermost edges and inner part with the hole pattern can be polished. Mainly it's the rough casting that needs cleaned up and hopefully made brighter.
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Chains

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Re: Cleaning Harley Cast Solid Rear Wheel
« Reply #1 on: March 28, 2015, 07:40:56 PM »

When I had my 89, I took the wheels to a professional polishing company, they looked chrome plated when they where done.  They sanded the rough cast smooth and then polished the entire wheel.

$100.00 per wheel back in1990.  Try a truck stop, a lot of them have guys that stop in and polish wheels for semi trucks.

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LC110

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Re: Cleaning Harley Cast Solid Rear Wheel
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2015, 10:49:48 AM »

I had a 96 Softail Custom with a solid back wheel. I kept it clean and polished best I could but after 60,000 plus miles it just looked terrible. So I painted the inner cast part.
I pulled the wheel and washed and scrubbed it with dawn dish soap and stiff brush. Rinsed and dried it off and taped over the parts I did not want painted. Found some automotive paint (cast color) at the local auto parts store and after several lite coats it looked like new again.
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skratch

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Re: Cleaning Harley Cast Solid Rear Wheel
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2015, 02:32:00 PM »

I had a 96 Softail Custom with a solid back wheel. I kept it clean and polished best I could but after 60,000 plus miles it just looked terrible. So I painted the inner cast part.
I pulled the wheel and washed and scrubbed it with dawn dish soap and stiff brush. Rinsed and dried it off and taped over the parts I did not want painted. Found some automotive paint (cast color) at the local auto parts store and after several lite coats it looked like new again.

i did the same on my sporty.  only i painted the inner rough part black  :2vrolijk_21:
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CVODON

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Re: Cleaning Harley Cast Solid Rear Wheel
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2015, 04:52:22 PM »

Rough area of the wheel is not hard to clean, you just need some Etching alum wheel cleaner and a little patience. Spray it on, scrub it a little and rinse, maybe a couple times. Then polish the machined parts with a Mag Wheel Polish. I have bought a couple of these wheels that folks thought were beyond being brought back, cleaned and polished them and they sold pretty easy. You can keep them from doing that in the future by using a milder product such as A to Z mag wheel cleaner from Eagle One or similar. Also this stuff cleans your tires exceptional.
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