It's been about a month since I picked this Ranger up and, with it being sunny and Spring-like out this morning, I gave it a bath. I was going to polish it up, too, but came to the realization that the front end is pretty beat up from 238k worth of highway/Interstate travel (chips, pits, etc) and found a few spots where the paint was worn down to metal and starting to surface rust. I decided it probably wasn't worth the effort so I just washed it up and threw some shine on the rubber.

It's not much to look at in comparison to most of the trucks here, but I thought it looked pretty good in this shot.

The second picture, though, is a shot of the wheels. I don't know if it's oxidation (I can't feel anything there with my finger/nail), or what, but I can't get it off. I tried Purple Power, brasso, etc and nothing made any improvement. I don't want to get rims until it's time to replace the tires (and these are pretty new) so I was hoping there would be a way to clean them up.

Any ideas?

 

Clean looking truck for all those miles! I'd try to buff that out....you can always paint the wheels black to match the truck!

 

my rear driver side wheel has the exact same stuff on it. I dont know what it is

 

That is the clear coat coming off

 

From the pictures the truck looks like it is in pretty good shape.

 

Thank you. The front end is pretty chipped up and the driver's seat is worn out but, yeah, it's in pretty great shape for close to a quarter of a million miles.

You think those wheels would look ok in black? The center caps are starting to get oxidized, too, and may need replaced.

 

Its for sure the clear coat coming off on the wheels and since the bare aluminum is exposed they are oxidizing. If you wanted to fix this you'd need to strip the wheels and buff the oxidation out and reclear them. (not worth it)