The wheel wells of my 850 is very ugly. The car has run for an unknown amount of time on salted roads and dirt roads without maintenance, which makes everything behind the rims look rusted and ugly.
It's a minor complaint, but it's also an easy one to fix, so I decided to paint the calipers and give the rest a shine-up. Only problem is, aside from calipers, I can't find any information on what can and cannot be fixed there. Since this is my only working car at the moment, I don't want to figure things out on my own and end up ruining anything vital.

I understand that the brake discs, the wheel studs and any tubes or wires are fairly off limits, but is there anything else in the wheel well I should be aware of when I start removing rust and grime and coat with hammerite? Or can I go nuts and things will wear back to normal if I happen to upset the finer mechanics?

Thanks in advance for the help. =)

 

You can power was just about everything down there. You don't want to force water into the transmission at the axle inputs and you do not want to damage the axle boots or ABS Wheel sensors.

 

On this note, be careful of what brake rotors you buy. Definitely make sure the hub and edge are treated so they won't rust. I bought the Brembo rotor kit from FCP and the wheel hubs looked like the deck rails on the Titanic after about two rains. By contrast, my '11 VW GTI's wheel hubs still aren't rusted after three full Illinois winters.

So now, I have to pull them off and figure out a way to paint the hubs and the outer edge. It can be done, it's just a PIA and shouldn't be necessary with a quality name brand rotor. I'm also going to paint the calipers while I'm at it.