Cleaning up wheels after a fire?

My storage locker burnt up.  Most stuff was lost, but most of my stash of wheels was hosed down pretty heavily or yanked out of the locker by firefighters trying to get water to everything behind them.  It was hot enough to pretty much destroy the tires on everything.  So, I've got a few questions about cleaning the wheels up (assuming they are safe to use):

1. Any ideas on how to easily remove what is left of tire carcasses on the rims?  The rubber is a lot more brittle now, so I assume it won't be as hard as with normal tires, but still, not the easiest thing in the world.  I do have an old pair of tin snips I may try, but am guessing there has to be a better way that still won't risk damaging the wheels.
2. Need to clean burnt rubber/ash off the wheels, especially on the inside of the hoops and bead area.  Sonax wheel cleaner has been suggested, so I'll try to grab some of that and see what happens.  Would be happy for other suggestions, too.
3. If the finish is mostly intact on the wheels, I am kind of assuming they did not get hot enough to be unsafe.  Would that be an incorrect or correct assumption?  The worst is the Corvette GS replica wheels, and I haven't spent any time looking to see if the finish is still good under the rubber.  One of eastsideWife's GTI wheels has a small area with what appears to be discolored clearcoat, but otherwise the finish appears good on them.

Right now everything is in the backyard being exposed to weather in an attempt to rinse any loose crud off, and to get rid of the smell.  There was a lot of plastic in the locker, so you can imagine how bad it is, combined with the burnt rubber.

Are aluminum wheels generally heat treated?  My impression is that at least some of them are, and if so then personally I don't think I'd trust them after the tires have been burned off.

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Are aluminum wheels generally heat treated?  My impression is that at least some of them are, and if so then personally I don't think I'd trust them after the tires have been burned off.

 

I have the same concern, but the fact that the finish on many of them seems fine makes me think they may be okay.

I agree on the finish, for the most part.

Most common alloy for wheels seems to be A356.  I'd try and find the temperature you need to take that to to destroy the heat treatment.  I think that starts to happen above 500-600°F?  Verify that before you take it as gospel.

May be possible that they were artificially aged though.  Were it me, I don't know that I'd take the chance.

Sorry to hear about the fire, though I'm glad you were able to save a few items.

As far as cleanup, I'll point you to our own experiences in cleaning up after a fire:

[How to clean up after a car fire]

I think I just used some meguiars wheel cleaner (pink/purple bottle) and a brush and a pressure washer and they came out fine. They did sit outside for a while after the fire before cleaning them, and only 2 of the tires burst (small side wall slit) the rest were just crispy in the area exposed to the heat.

I have used the wheels after having had new tires mounted and the tire shop never mentioned any issues with balancing and they have cleaned up fine. Center caps being plastic and stored elsewhere didn't fair as well.

Fire's suck, here's hoping they clean up nicely for you!

eastsideTim said:

codrus (Forum Supporter) said:

Are aluminum wheels generally heat treated?  My impression is that at least some of them are, and if so then personally I don't think I'd trust them after the tires have been burned off.

 

I have the same concern, but the fact that the finish on many of them seems fine makes me think they may be okay.

IMHO "seems fine" is not really compatible with something as safety-critical as a wheel.

How/rare expensive are these wheels? Unless they are some sort of unicorn I agree that I am not sure its worth to reuse them. 
 

DjGreggieP said:

I have used the wheels after having had new tires mounted and the tire shop never mentioned any issues with balancing and they have cleaned up fine. Center caps being plastic and stored elsewhere didn't fair as well.

Thanks, that reminds me - I think the plastic center caps were fine on the GTI wheels, and they definitely were on the Pontiac GTA wheels.  I'll try to get some pictures up, but here's a higher resolution version of the pic from the other thread:

You can see why I'd be more concerned about the Corvette wheels than the others.

Slippery said:

How/rare expensive are these wheels? Unless they are some sort of unicorn I agree that I am not sure its worth to reuse them. 
 

I may search online for a set of Mk7 GTI take offs for my wife's car, as the tires were due for replacement anyway.

The closest of any of them to be unicorns would be the GTA wheels, of which replicas are available, but not cheap, and the 14" Mopar alloys that I abandoned at the locker, becasue they were definitely too far gone.

The GTI and GTA wheels on the right could likely be saved if it can be confirmed that the heat treatment is unlikely to have been affected.  The rest are definitely scrap though.  And even for the salvageable ones, I'd be inclined to lean on insurance to replace them before I'd consider using them. 

Damn that makes me sad. Insurance? 

Patrick said:

Damn that makes me sad. Insurance? 

I'm debating on insurance.  My deductible is high enough I'm not sure it worth making a claim when it will end up being relatively small.  I've seen enough horror stories about multiple claims in a short period of time getting insurance jacked up or canceled that I don't like the idea of making smaller claims.  The money really isn't as much of an issue to me as the amount of time it took to amass everything, and I won't get reimbursed for hours of trudging around junkyards.

I work as a metallurgist in an aluminum facility.  While we dont make wheels, most are cast and then heat treated to T4 or T6 wich both relieves stresses from casting and causes solution hardening.  Some of these treatments can be as low as 190C .  I'd be less worried about the wheels that still have the plastic hub cover and rubber on them.  The ones with burnt rubber should be recycled.  ALCOA wheels has a blurb about overheating SEMI wheels from either flat tires, bearing, or brake issues.  Its a big enough deal that they put a heat indicator on the wheels to alert the driver during an inspection that they need to be taken out of service.