I bought a Univega Via Carisma yesterday for 30 dollars. It was what I was looking for. Chromoly frame, rigid fork, and best of all, has 700c wheels with a Shimano Deore freehub rear wheel with 130mm spacing (7sp). With my size, I do not like freewheels.

It is dirty and in need of major fix up. I am going to replace both of the derailleurs, the shifters (currently it has some cheap stem shifters), and possibly the crankset.

The thing is that the wheels are filthy!! Has stainless spokes but they are coated in grime and gunk. The rim is nasty as all get out. I have cleaned as much as possible using carb cleaner and wd-40 but i wonder what is the best way to clean all the nooks and crannies like in between the spokes by the hub, the areas near the nipples that are coated in grime, etc. The wheel itself is in good shape. I did polish up the braking surfaces with some super fine grit sandpaper and they look great, not much wear at all. I just want to make the wheels as nice as possible.

I'm going to clean this bike up as much as possible and if I like it enough, I might consider powder coating it down the road if I am going to keep it. The current paint is rough in spots.

So in a nutshell, what is the best way to clean up filthy alloy wheels without breaking them down. I was almost considering doing just that. Breaking them down, cleaning up all the individual parts and rebuilding them with new spoke nipples but that is a lot of work just to make something pretty. I really want to try to get the dirty areas by the cracks and crevasses that are hard to rub clean.