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I picked up 2 wire wheels at the Pate swap meet. I can not find the motor wheel number, so I guess there were repops.

How do you clean your wire wheels? Do you have special brushes?

And then,

How do you polish your wheels?

There are special brushes available, kind of like old radiator brushes but with a wooden core instead of steel. But it my experience they are only marginally useful, I hate to clean wire wheels but when I do I use old tooth brushes. My wires (on my 34) are painted so I just use any conventional cleaner/wax, if yours are chromed you might have to do them twice, once with a chrome cleaner and then a wax. I use an old tee shirt with my finger inside, plan on about 1 hour per wheel, at least, to go a good job. To say that it's tedious is an understatement.

If anyone has a better way, I'm all ears.

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I agree with Dave, it is tedious. I have found that when I want to do a deep clean it is easier to remove the wheel and submerge it in a large tank filled with dawn or ivory soap solution. I then crawl in and scrub. An inflatable 'kiddy' pool works fine.

My experience is that Dawn works best on greasy dirt. I've used it to clean blocks and other messy metal objects. And it's kind to your hands, which could be important if you're in there for an hour!

Thanks all for the help. I will try the suggestions.

I looked, but did not find, yet, on the internet I would have thought that a detailed brush would be made for this kind of job.

Has anyone tried the small detail paint rollers?

I worked on one of the wheels last night, like OD mentioned with a towl/rag. What a pain to thread it between the spokes.

Theses are the chrome wires found on the 53-54 Caribbeans, and optional on the 55-56.

EDIT: The paint rollers did not work.

How do you clean them with tires on AND on the car?

I used Turtle wax chrome cleaner.

The tooth brush did the best getting at the tight places. Still had to thread a rag/towl to buff it.

Was there any literature back in 53-56 on how to keep them clean? Doesn't the owners manual suggest how to clean the car? I don't remember anything on wire wheels.

I need to take care of the rust on the tire/tube side. I assume a wire brush and primer would work ok?

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I use toothbrushes (very thin) and an old towel to weave between the spokes.
I read about using shoelaces and thought it was great until I discovered they would not clear between the wires where they cross. Those wires actually touch. So much for easy cleaning. I vote with Dave - it's a pain. Spend half a day.
BUT IT'S WORTH IT!! (just my opinion)

Cotton (or other natural fabric) clothes line is also great for cleaning small spaces where you can run it back and forth. For extra 'frothiness' you can abrade the clothes line with emory cloth.

Not familiar with them, but would a bore snake for cleaning guns be something to try.

Randy, I agree after cleaning the one wheel for two evenings, it's not a show car wheel, it has flaking chrome, but man does it look good! The spokes are stainless, the hub looks like a motor wheel, but the rim is different. I will have to compare it to a motor wheel.

I don't have wires on the Duchess, but I'm working on my youngest son's Jaguar that has had some pretty rough years.

The wheels were very bad. I soaked the wire wheel in spray wheel cleaner and used a tough nylon scrub brush to wash the wire wheel with hot soapy water. I sprayed some WD40 on it and kept brushing. I scrubbed the wheel with hot soapy water until it was fairly clean but stained in places. Repeated the process for the other side. Towel-dried it and brought it in to a work table.

I worked in Never Dull, the can of cotton soaked in metal cleaner, and then soaked the cotton in Meguier's chrome cleaner and worked it between the spokes with a wood skewer. I have different sizes of wood skewers. They come in handy for detailing, too.

I ripped some rag into 1-1/2-inch strips and fed them between the spokes, threading them with the skewer. I have some brushes similar to toothbrushes, but with stronger handles. I used a 4" polishing wheel on my drill to get the hard stains off on large areas of the back side and the front row of spokes. I used a Dremel tool to clean the base of each spoke that had surface rust in the back row.

The skewers work on rubbing out surface rust stains and road tar. Chrome is harder than wood. Wood is harder than rust. I can scrape with the skewer without scratching the chrome. And I use the skewer to put real pressure on the rag in the 'between' places. Still it's no picnic.

OK, guys, I know you're thinking What skill does that take? None, just four (4) hours of perseverance Per Wheel for a wheel in bad shape. In places on the last wheel I used some dabs of chrome/silver paint. The hub will have to be re-chromed. The spokes themselves (a few are broken) are $4 each, so not a killer. Also I used surgical gloves because of the metal cleaner chemicals.

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