dear experts,

i want to ask you a two part question about wheel detailing. i am about to embark on a project where i take off the wheels and one by one detail them on both my BMW and Porsche. all of my wheels are alloy - no chrome or aluminum.

first part question is:

1. removing baked on brake dust. i am usually pretty good about washing my car but this winter there was about a two months window when i didn't wash it since it was raining a lot. there are a few spots where it looks like the brake dust got stuck (maybe baked?) on the wheels. not huge chunks, but enough to notice them when washing the car. more like bread crumbs size. i usually use 50% simple green and 50% water solution, but in this case i might need something a little bit stronger. sounds like P21S wheel cleaner is the next step up, right? any other suggestions?

2. cleaning inside of the wheel. i am guessing 50% simple green/water solution might not be good enough since inside of the wheel has A LOT of crap like tar, rust, brake dust, etc. i seen a few DIY write ups, which i cant find anymore, but people managed to turn dirty wheels with years of crap on them into new looking ones.

what products do you recommend? 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner? Stoner tarminator?

any good pointers or write ups for detailing wheels by removing them from the car? should i coat them with Klasse AIO or P21S wax after they are cleaned?

also... i usually use my old MF towels to clean the wheels. should i get something more aggressive for this project? what brushes do you recommend?

thanks.

here are pics of the tar/rust/dirt on the inside that i am talking about:

 

Writeup from Moe
https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...d.php?t=102919

And one from Philip
http://www.detailersdomain.com/index...n=Custom&ID=69

 

jkb,

Keep in mind you can clay the barrels as well, if you have used clay handy that would be a good way to make use of it. p21s wheel cleaner is good, but by no mean where the buck stops in wheel cleaning. I wouldn't recommend you use simple green on that surface for many reasons. Go the least aggressive possible first then work your way up. As far as the grime is concerned, and from what the pictures might indicate, I would recommend a much more affordable option first, Surf City Garages Road Grime Remover, it's pretty much based on the same premise as p21s, only it's safe to use on all surfaces, including paint. I know autogeek carries it as well as exceldetail, and I have no doubts it would take care of the grime issue found on your barrels.

As far as preventing such saturation and grime buildup is concerned, there are a plethora of products to choose from. Pretty much any wax on the market would be a good idea, but keep in mind waxes have a melting point in which they would no longer be effective. One of my favorite go to wheel sealants has been detailers pride surface shield, it's cheap, it's easy, it looks great, and it's pretty much fool proof. Then again that's just one that comes to mind, there are several sealants that would aid you in the prevention, and gloss enhancing process, just do some research on synthetic sealants and decide for yourself. My company uses p21s, and I am not trying to steer you away from anything, only making sure you understand that there are so many viable options for your particular endeavor.

Good luck, and if you'd like more suggestions I could throw many your way.


-Brian

 

Have you or anyone tried Rejex as a sealant? I believe you have to go thru a two step process to clean and polish your wheels (talking about CNC aliminum wheels) then apply the Rejex to seal the metal.


I should have done a search first...there are professional detailers on here who have already recommended Rejex...sorry guys...this is my first visit to the detailing forum.

 

Rejex is excellent if your wheels are clear coated. If you have polished wheels, you don't want to wax them because it closes the pores and causes the metal to not be able to breathe. On bare wheels, you simply do a routine polishing. But RejEx works great on any painted wheel.

 

Some of the recommendations here would seem to contradict what the makers of the CCW wheels tell me, but since they make the wheels, I have to go along with what they say. The CCW wheels are made from a solid block of aircraft aluminum which is polished to a high luster.... and after a while, they start to get a bit cloudy as a natural process of oxidation. Here's what the CCW folks sent me as the process to clean my wheels:

First you apply Busch Aluminum wash with a rag, not sprayed on. Spraying leads to an overspray condition which can affect other parts of the car. This will cloud the finish on the wheels...but they said not to worry about the clouding. Next you polish out the clouding with the $11 version of Mother's Wheel Billet polish...not the cheaper variety. As a final step, you apply one or two coats of Rejex to seal the aluminum and make it more impervious to brake dust and road grime. When applying the Rejex, you have to let the wheels "cure" for 48 hours and not drive the car. Afterwards, the high polish on the wheels will not cloud up.

At first I was a bit apprehensive about doing anything that would actually cloud up the finish on the wheel....but since they sent me the actual products to do the job, I'm going to follow their directions.

chuck

 

So they told you to wash/decontaminate/polish/seal the wheels, pretty simple strategy, I am sure mothers is not the only metal or billet polish that is safe to use. My findings have Wenol a superior product. It's good they actually get involved and suggest things like this, but it seems they may have an affiliation with the said product lines, otherwise why recommend only those products knowing there are several out there that do the same exact thing?

 

They don't have any more affiliation with a given product line any more than you would for a product that you recommended. It's just that they know their metalurgy and the products they suggested were the ones they found worked best on the aluminum wheels. I would be inclined to follow their suggestions since they know what works best....not that they're affiliated with any product.

Most of the Porsche mechanics recommend that I run Castrol GTX 20-50 in my 930...but that wouldn't necessarily make them affiliated with Castrol in any way.