I hate cleaning and polishing wheels with the spokes in place, if it is a good wheel from a C&V bike and it didn't come with SS spokes this is the best time to upgrade as it will be so much easier to clean and polish everything while it is apart. I have several wheels apart as we speak that I am doing this with, a set of Mavic Module E's that didn't have SS spokes and a cheap set of hubs. The rims were pretty dirty and had some minor pitting ( although the original decals are like new ) and there was rust on the eyelets but instead of trying to clean them up by hand I tried my buffing wheel which is working out better then expected. When I am done I am going to relace with SS spokes to a set of NOS Shimano XT MTB hubs I have and return them to my Bianchi Touring bike that they came off.