I am trying to get mold off of my truck wheels, I have tried bleach, tilex and scrubbing, I need help. It is a white mold that appears in small patches on the wheels. The wheels look like they are polished aluminum, I am not sure. thanks
I’ve always found full strength bleach would take off any mold. Use an old toothbrush. Use plain chlorine bleach.
Always the same spots? Perhaps they are not mold.
Corrosion
Nor is anyone else sure! You’re not trying to scrub the letters off are you? You’re not going to have a form of mold on a petroleum based product such as tires…even if the car stays stationary for 50 years.
I agree with grampy. It’s aluminum corrosion, and I don’t know of anything that will get it off, short of an aluminum polisher. Maybe CLR, but I don’t know if that will effect the paint job or tires. But, anyway, it’s not mold, that’s why the bleach isn’t working.
…Oh, wait! I know what you mean now. You aren’t talking about the tires but the wheels. Do you live near a large body of salt water? Then this is nothing more then sodium corrosion which you are making worse by stripping the sealing elements off of the metal. Try just using a pure water and clean rag.
Bleach and other oxidizing agents will only make the aluminum corrosion worse. Often aluminum wheels are clear-coated. You can have them refinished. Often body shops send them to specialists rather than doing them themselves.
It’s unlikely to be mold, far more likely to me something in the clear coat covering the wheel. Use acetone on a rag or sponge, and remove the clear coat. Very time consuming and labor intensive, but it’ll clean them completely.
Be aware that acetone is extremely flammable, so use it outdoors with plenty of ventilation. Use rubber gloves or you’ll have skin like a snake when you’re done. Don’t use latex gloves, acetone will eat them too.
Latex is natural rubber. Other alternatives are vinyl gloves and nitrile gloves.
Chlorine or any other salt solution will almost certainly attack the aluminum unless it is a weak solution. Try acetone or alcohol. If you use rubbing alcohol (IPA), don’t use vinyl gloves.
A white color implies aluminum oxide. That won’t come off easily. You can scrub it off or remove it with an acid solution. Us a non-oxidizing acid like hydrochloric in a weak solution, like 10 parts water and 1 part acid. ALWAYS pour acid into water. When acid and water mix, they gives off heat and the mixture could boil and splash on you if you pour water into acid. If it doesn’t work, consider adding a little more acid.
That’s aluminum oxide…aluminum’s version of rust. Otherwise called corrosion or “pitting”.
There is no cure. Polishing with polishing compound or rubbing compound and a powre buffer may help, but you cannot replace the material lost in the oxidized spots.