I bought an 85 toy with centerline rims. they were never taken care off. I washed them with soap and water with a good brush, but i can still see some crude, like wearing from road salt, any suggestions on getting them back to factory quality? <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Best thing I ever found for cleaning alum rims (not coated ones) is an acid solution used for prepping alum for welding. Welder supply stores have it, but it aint cheap anymore.

You can try using baking soda and a dry rag as one method. I've also heard of using fine grit sand and brake fluid but can't speak for the results myself. Anything that has a mild abrasive should do the trick. (i.e. Soft scrub which is nothing but baking soda and clorox.)

If your talkin stock rims? Marlin uses oven cleaner on his cores and they come out nice.
If there polished? NeverDull or some other non abrasive polish may work.

The extent of cleaning depends on how bad the oxidation/corrosion is. On some rims, I've simply just had to clean with neverdull swaps and polish with Mother's Aluminum/Metal polish. In more extreme cases, I've had to sand parts or all of the wheel face to get it back into shape. I can't stand clear coat on rims, and I strip it off if I get rims with it. It just cracks, peels, yellows, and traps junk under it. Sometimes the sanding just needs to be with 600 to 1500 grit sandpaper. Sometimes I've had to use 80 grit to get scratches, burrs, and marks around the wheel weights out. On my '85 pickup, the Eagle rims I bought just had a milled aluminum look. It wasn't shiney at all, and I sanded them down and polished them. By the time I was done it was almost as shiney as Chrome.

Here ya go... I followed the instructions and my alloy SR5's turned out great.
http://home.off-road.com/~kemanuel/SR5Wheel/SR5Wheel.htm

can you guys post some photos of your wheels?

Citric acid from an auto detail shop did a number on these.Same stuff they use at the stealership on old crusty motors.
Looks like crap before. Polished them by hand with aluminum polish afterward.
over a year later they still look good.