2 and 3 piece wheel bolt restoration

[CT TDI]

Screw all these methods and do it right the first time:

Items needed:

Barkeepers Friend
Electric toothbrush
Bowl
Towel
Household cleaning gloves (wear these through the whole procedure)

Step one:
Soak all the bolts in a bowl of water with a generous helping of Barkeeper's Friend mixed in. The longer the soak time the less time with the toothbrush. I soaked mine for at least 15 minutes.

Step two:
Take the bolts out one at a time and go over them completely with the electric toothbrush. This is much easier than other methods because no elbow grease is involved and you aren't holding a heavy drill for 2 hours.

Step three:
Rinse in water and dry each bolt completely with a towel.

I used this method on all my plated OZ bolts and the results were amazing. The toothbrush will get in between the points on the head of the bolts well. I only have a couple of the points that were really bad so I just stuck them back in the bowl to soak some more and moved on to the next bolt. All my gold bolts went from looking tarnished and black to gleaming pure sparkling gold.

[Luca88]

Anyone have a solid solution to keeping them from rusting again? I have the OZ chrome bolts. Thinking of rattle can clear, but also debating having them sent out to be chromed again. Not really sure how to approach it. They look awesome, I'm just hoping there is a way to keep them that way.

[staystetti]

Wax?

[Ryal.]

If they're actually rusting, you're through the chrome on them and they need to be replated. You can spray clear on bare bolts to keep them from rusting as rapidly, but they will rust under the clear eventually.

I've never had any real luck with rock tumblers for anything other than cleaning hardware up a bit. It's a good concept but isn't real effective in practice.

[penpen]

vinegar striped the plating and clear off my bolts after 3 days of soaking, just a couple coats of paint and done don't have to worry about rust

[gen2_4door]

Well I used the 'bar keepers friend soak and scrub with an electric toothbrush with AMAZING results!! Touched them up with a bit of Mothers polish to finish them up. Absolutely floored with the results.

[Dave_The_BMXER]

Anyone have a solid solution to keeping them from rusting again? I have the OZ chrome bolts. Thinking of rattle can clear, but also debating having them sent out to be chromed again. Not really sure how to approach it. They look awesome, I'm just hoping there is a way to keep them that way.

I'm going to try and wax/seal mine. Otherwise I have to take em apart and re plate em bah.

[Beware]

Screw all these methods and do it right the first time:

Step one:
Soak all the bolts in a bowl of water with a generous helping of Barkeeper's Friend mixed in. The longer the soak time the less time with the toothbrush. I soaked mine for at least 15 minutes.

Step two:
Take the bolts out one at a time and go over them completely with the electric toothbrush. This is much easier than other methods because no elbow grease is involved and you aren't holding a heavy drill for 2 hours.

Step three:
Rinse in water and dry each bolt completely with a towel.

I agree with this....except I used vinegar in step one and soaked for 24hrs. Then I added a step 4 and 5 which was to stick them in the dish washer cutlery section for a wash and then used super super super fine steel wool to remove any left over crud and shiny them up at the end, perfect!