You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
Having just had my daughters car 'summer' wheels refurbished, I'm looking at how best to coat them with some sort of 'magic-juice' to assist keeping them shiny and reduce future cleaning time. She currently has her set of winter wheels with tyres on her car.
Any recommendations for any specific products which I can apply to the wheels?
Wax? Sealer? 'Ceramic'?
Thanks in advance.
I use Armor All Shield For Wheels on one of our cars that particularly picks up brake dust the worst. Between washes, most brake dust just falls off itself and the wheels stay looking fairly clean, it does need reapplying each wash. I always use bilt hamber auto wheel to make cleaning easy.
Any mildly decent hard wax, and don't attack them with wheel cleaner or a brush! I've been using Fusso Coat lately and grime just falls off.
For just over wintering in the shed I’d flood them with gt85, don’t even buff them off as you want the condensation to bead away. Then I’d clean them off again in the spring & seal up with something like the chemical guys wheel sealant. I’ve tried gtechniq’s ceramic sealant and I wasn’t that impressed considering the cost. Would be better investing in a decent fallout remover.
TBH you see bigger differences in deposits that get retained by use of different brake pads than through trying to stop the crap sticking. EBC pads seem to be bloomin awful for throwing out dust & actual lumpy fallout. OEM tend to be the best. A fast road / track pad is gonna be more dusty.
GTechniq C5 I've used in the past and it was good but I ran out of it for when I had the wheels on the van refurbed recently so used some Auto Finesse wheel wax I had knocking around. Seems ok so far... Smells nice too.
I've used Poorboys wheel sealant.
I can't entirely figure out why it would be any better than the Bilt+Hamber speedwax I use on the rest of the car, but it smells nice, does what is says on the tin, and saves double dipping a pad full of residual crap off the wheel into the car wax!
I use EBC yellow pads (the even softer lightweight car version) and the dirt just rinses off. I don't use any sort of cleaner on them, just the dregs of the washing bucket with a microfibre cloth once the rest of the car is done.
I've used all sorts but if you have freshly refurbed wheels and they are off the car - this stuff is really good:
![553995520c[1]](https://stw-forum-images.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/13483806/8sxc95zb5x0utu4bqmjlslyhrz80v8vy.jpg)
Two tins will do two coats on a set of wheels - they need to be spotless first though. Really does work and stop brake dust sticking - just a rinse off with the hose gets them sparkling.
Dont go too heavy or you'll get a run (like a lacquer run) and dont touch it till its dry.
TBH you see bigger differences in deposits that get retained by use of different brake pads than through trying to stop the crap sticking. EBC pads seem to be bloomin awful for throwing out dust & actual lumpy fallout. OEM tend to be the best
Not neccesarily. Mercedes OE pads are notoriously, aggressively dusty. EBC Ultimax are there 'low dust' ceramic option and really good, EBC Red or Blue are terrible as you'd expect, not their focus. Do your own research!
^ that's what I use - partly because it lasts really well, partly because it's really easy/quick to apply and I can't be bothered spending much time looking after the vehicles now.
Also, once done avoid any car washes that use harsh chemicals to clean. I don't need to use anything stronger than normal car shampoo (currently Autoglym somethingorother cos it's kind to ceramic coating on Mrs a11y's car, apparently) on the wheels once done with that stuff.
My summer wheels after fitted my winters at the end of October:
The key is to clean them regular when in use. If your daughter doesn't you/she will have a right job to remove the brake dust, and that's when all the nasty chemicals come out.