Wheel Brush Battle: Montana vrs Wheel Woolies Brush

[swanicyouth]

Most of us have realized by now, nylon bristle brushes are probably not the best to use on well maintained aluminum wheels. So, this opens the door to use a boar's hair brush. Boars hair is natural fiber, and has been proven to not scratch body paint if used correctly - so since most wheel "paint" is harder than the paint on the vehicle's body - they are considered safe.

This is true. Boar's hair brushes (BHB) won't scratches even the most delicate wheels in the cleaning process if used correctly. It seems the two most common BHB used for wheels are the Montana (PBMG) & the Wheel Woolie models.

As you can see, the Montana brush is $5 less. Big deal. As I'd like to point out, the Montana brush "hairs" are shorted in person than pictured:

These brushes are workhorses. I've decided to buy both to see which is better since I use them so much. The Montana brush I've had for years - the Wheel Woolie brush is new. Since I've had the Montana brush for years, I can tell you the construction is pretty much bullet proof. It's as good today as the day I bought it.

Let's compare the two...

Handles:

Height of bristles is almost the same:

However, the density of the bristles is quite different as you can see above. The Wheel Woolie brush is much denser. The Montana brush kind of looks like hair plugs.

Oddly, although the Wheel Woolie brush is has denser hair and a longer handle - it's clearly lighter by weight. It feels to me like the difference is because the handle is lighter, as it has a hollow cutout.

To make a long story short, my opinion is the Wheel Woolie brush is better. The bristles are denser, the bristles are a bit stiffer, and the brush is lighter. The bristles on the Montana brush are slightly "softer" - or more flexible. I laid this bottle of UWW+ on the bristles to demonstrate.

Time will tell if the Wheel Woolie brush holds up as well as the Montana brush. Based on my experience with the Wheel Woolie paint brushes, it will hold up quite well. This brush gets frequent use and is a couple of years old:

As you can see, that brush is in fine shape. So, if your looking for a good wheel brush - either will work; but I feel the Wheel Woolie brush is a better brush.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Goin Rogue]

:xyxthumbs: Nice review!

 

[The Guz]

Nice review on these brushes.

 

[FUNX650]

What a boar-ing review.

Q.
Do your boar's hair wheel brushes ever get/have that, uh,
wild boar/pig-sty smell?

Note:
I tried drying one of mine, out in the Sunlight,
and it wound up ruining the bristles.


Bob

 

[swanicyouth]

What a boar-ing review.



Q.

Do your boar's hair wheel brushes ever get/have that, uh,

wild boar/pig-sty smell?



Note:

I tried drying one of mine, out in the Sunlight,

and it wound up ruining the bristles.





Bob

No. They don't really smell like anything too me. I've abused the Montana brush to no end. Left it wet in a bag for weeks, hosed it out with a pressure washer a zillion times, used it with Wheel Brite to all kinds of high pH wheel cleaners. Nothing seems to mess it up.

 

[FUNX650]

No. They don't really smell like anything too me. I've abused the Montana brush to no end. Left it wet in a bag for weeks, hosed it out with a pressure washer a zillion times, used it with Wheel Brite to all kinds of high pH wheel cleaners. Nothing seems to mess it up.

Thanks for the follow up.

Maybe that particular one of mine
had wild goat hair bristles.

Bob

 

[cardaddy]

Dang it!
Now you've gone and cost me more money.

Put in a $300 order yesterday, trying to get just the bare essentials. Annnnndd of course I forgot some stuff, and now it seems I really need another brush.

 

[dad07]

Dang it!
Now you've gone and cost me more money.

Put in a $300 order yesterday, trying to get just the bare essentials. Annnnndd of course I forgot some stuff, and now it seems I really need another brush.

:laughing:


You know Tony........brushes are like towels you can never have enough

 

[expdetailing]

Thank you for your time and nicely written review.
I have to say, I have become a brush addict/snob lately despite not ever wanting to spend more than $5 on any brush when I first started shopping AG. I can't tell you how long I held-out on the bigger speed master because of the price, only to regret it later for not buying it sooner.
I have to ask, do you need to store these bristles-down like my shaving brush does, or else it'll mold? I just received a beaver's hair shaving brush, and yes, it smells like beaver.

 

[swanicyouth]

Thank you for your time and nicely written review.
I have to say, I have become a brush addict/snob lately despite not ever wanting to spend more than $5 on any brush when I first started shopping AG. I can't tell you how long I held-out on the bigger speed master because of the price, only to regret it later for not buying it sooner.
I have to ask, do you need to store these bristles-down like my shaving brush does, or else it'll mold? I just received a beaver's hair shaving brush, and yes, it smells like beaver.

I just hang them on the wall on a hook and let them air dry. But I've left the Montana brush wet in a bag for a while and it never got mold. Wouldn't matter much anyway, just clean it with some wheel acid and the mold would be gone.

Good thing about natural bristle brushes is the bristles don't stay bent like nylon. They always seem to go pretty much back to their original position when wet. As for the Daytona brushes, I keep 3 of them.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I just received a beaver's hair shaving brush, and yes, it smells like beaver.

I'm pretty sure that's TMI, not to mention being the intro for too many jokes that would be against the rules.

 

[expdetailing]

Okay, I better explain; sorry SwanicYouth. Honestly, the brush was a gift from the art of shaving store. $95 big-ones for some cream, after-shave' and a brush. I went to slap the lather on and caught a whiff of the brush and I thought' "what the H#!! is that smell!!?"

 

[FrankS]

Nice review! Nick from AG recommended the Wheel Woolie brush to me a while ago and I really like them.

Don't make the same mistake I did though. I'm on my 2nd WW brush. I left the first one in a bucket with other brushes with water and some excess wheel cleaner in the bucket for several days. One of the other brushes was pressing against the hairs of the WW brush all that time. When I pulled the WW brush out after several days the hairs were parted down the middle and I couldn't get them to go back to their original place.

So now I always rinse the brush, shake the excess water off and hang it to dry...lesson learned :nomore: