The New And Improved Unofficial R65 Forum V2

Technical Discussion => BMW Technical Q&A, Primarily R65 => Topic started by: 10drum on February 07, 2016, 03:17:47 PM

Title: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: 10drum on February 07, 2016, 03:17:47 PM

What is the best way to clean/polish the R65 snowflake aluminum wheels?

Title: Re: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: Tony Smith on February 07, 2016, 04:15:11 PM

Pay someone else to clean them - they are a tedious and boring job.


I am planning to try something in the near future - I am going to send a wheel out to be hydro-blasted. I will dismount the tyre and remove (and degrease) the bearing area and see what I get back.

Title: Re: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: montmil on February 07, 2016, 09:45:52 PM

An exercise in futility trying to polish the slightly textured surface of the snowflake wheels.

Title: Re: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: Barry on February 08, 2016, 02:55:43 AM

Snowflakes are painted so there's not much you can do except keep them clean and refurbished them when the paint deteriorates too much. If all the paint was stripped off and the alloy polished I think the upkeep could be a nightmare.

Title: Re: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: peteremc on February 08, 2016, 03:40:00 AM

Beadblasting. Had mine done as part of my restoration. Not the sort of thing you would do regularly, but couldn't help but show this one off.

The other thing I noticed right away is that the finish on them now is so much smoother than before and will be so much easier to keep them looking good. These will be painted and should look great.

Title: Re: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: marcmax on February 08, 2016, 07:14:20 AM

I took it one step further and had my wheels powdercoated. A quick spray with an ordinary household cleaner and they wipe down with a shop rag and some cotton swabs for the tight spots. The only place that is a pain is down behind the disk rotors.

Title: Re: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: georgesgiralt on February 08, 2016, 07:38:29 AM

Do you know the RAL number color of the silver snowflakes ?
Because my powder coating shop use only RAL and we did not  find the correct silver. (but the wheels are  old and the paint is chipped)

Title: Re: Cleaning snow flake wheels?
Post by: Bob_Roller on February 08, 2016, 11:36:31 AM

My '81 R65 does not have any paint on them, never did .

I gave up trying to keep them clean over 30 years ago !!! ;D