I have some really ugly water spots that have baked on my wheels and I cant seem to remove them. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

 

eeesh, from the looks of it your going to need to have the clear coat stripped, polish the barrel and then re clear em. that looks badddd.

 

Yup, that's not spotting. That's what polished lips looks like when they get cleaned with a cleaner that contains acid. A BMW dealer did that to my M3 HREs when they "washed" my car, even though I specifically told them I don't want a wash. They had to pay $1800 for HRE to fix them.

 

thats what i was thinking.... looks like dried acid. not good news if it is.

if non-acid based wheel cleaners (p21s, for example) and a wheel brush are not making any progress, you are stuck going back to the acid. if the wheels are etched, nothing will fix them. if not, the acid might help.
with acid the key is never to let the wheels get the least bit dry.
wash, rinse one wheel at a time. while still wet, acid an area and brush it. rinse immediately well. check it out and if its better, repeat.

there is a good chance that those wheels will have to be stripped maybe sanded and recoated. first try my suggestions above and report back-

 

acid, one reason why acid should be the absolute last resort to any wheel cleaning.

 

If it's a polished lip, does that mean it's cleared? And if it is cleared doesn't that mean you can wet sand it and polish it back?

 

Acid does wounders.......... UNLESS it is not used properly..

Worked great on my rims... than again can destroy your rims at the same time.