What’s the best method to try to clean this up for a low budget do it yourself guy? The powder coat is pretty flawless but the polished lips are looking a little rough
There should be shops around that do CNC milling, that'd be the best way. With a shop that does this sort of thing day in and day out they can get something like that cleaned up pretty quickly. Otherwise, you'll have to buy some good polishing compounds and go to work with felt tip dremel bits. Concours polishing compounds would be the only ones I'd trust for metal work like this.
Looks more like clearcoat deterioration than the metal oxidizing (?) though that would be next.
I refinished wheels once myself. Very tough work. You have to SAND the finish off and cut through any pitting. Next comes steel wool from coarse to superfine. Then real polishing with a 5" wheel and those compound sticks that look like plastic - three cutting grades. Finished it with wax and buffing.
It looked fantastic - mirror finish but took me over TWENTY HOURS per wheel!
Never again. I would rather just get them sandblasted and have a matte look.
+1 what CobraJeff said. I took a previous car to a wheel shop. They can mill it smooth and they also offered a clear coating. Wasn’t cheap, but cheaper than new wheels for sure. Only pitfall is I’d have to bring the wheels in off the car.