Anyone not use a wheel cleaner?

My wife use to wash her car with windex. She touched up her paint with fingernail polish
 
Unfortunately no, I wasn't kidding. I don't always clean the tires but if I do, it was ajax on the rubber only. so I'm pwning myself apparently :/
looks like that is something else to add into my shopping cart.
 
I used to use a wheel cleaner to soften and dissolve brake dust and road grime that routinely built up on my wheels between washings. The front wheels on my truck would become very dirty and a wheel cleaner would make short work cleaning them and have them looking great in no time......

I did this until.........I started waxing my wheels with Collinite 845. Once I began using this protective coating just regular soap and water is needed to clean all my wheels now. I have tried a couple of dedicated wheel products and found that Poorboy's Wheel Sealant works incredibly well leaving long lasting protection reducing brake dust contamination by an astonishing 80%!
 
Ah, I used to use Ajax on my tires. Right about the same time I was using TR3 and Raindance (applied with an old wash cloth). Those were the days...

Now I use plain McGuires Gold Class in it's own bucket. Maybe a little APC for the tires but that's it. We are talking about well cared for cars that belong to me. On the occasional friend rescue, Optima Power Clean everything!
 
Depends on the car for sure. My "fun" car never gets wheels cleaner and only sometimes on my everyday driver. But my wife's truck needs wheels cleaner!!
We used to have a VW Jetta years ago and that thing always needed wheel cleaner. The brake pads were nasty on that car....
 
I use ONR. I have low dusting brake pads so I usually don't have much brake dust to remove.
 
I always start off with whatever soap I am using on the vehicle if I need more cleaning I will use APC and gradually move up
 
Pb's wheel sealant works quite well for my rims, I just use ONR on the rims and once a month ill use a bit of APC/Iron X
 
freaksavior said:
Unfortunately no, I wasn't kidding. I don't always clean the tires but if I do, it was ajax on the rubber only. so I'm pwning myself apparently :/
looks like that is something else to add into my shopping cart.
Click to expand...

i wasn't trying to nag on you at all... just explaining the problems with using a highly caustic house cleaning product on a car's sensitive parts...
 
bevans said:
Lol niiice


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I remember when I first met her. When she realized what I did, I think she was trying to show me up or something

I went to her apt one Saturday morning and found her washing her car. She was using windex as car wash soap and an old gritty sponge. After she got the car dried off she whipped out this giant bag of fingernail polish and started sorting through the colors to find the right match for her car. I was so smitten with her at the time (still am) that I just looked on with amazement

Funny thing was, the fingernail polish she decided on matched her paint perfectly :o
 
sensi09 said:
I just rinse down the wheel then begin washing with regular car wash soap and water. I've always done this and the wheels end up nice and clean.
Click to expand...

Yeap, I don't use a wheel cleaner unless absolutely necessary- which is generally only if cleaning a friends car that hasn't had the wheels cleaned in months.


On cars I normally maintain, car wash soap and a sponge/ boars hair brush to clean. Sometimes I use Meg's APC (regular green stuff) if I haven't cleaned the wheels for a few weeks- does a good job.
 
I ued to use a wheel cleaner almost every time every time I washed, but now only use it if the wheels are really bad. Once I get a good coat of wax or wheel polish on the rims, most everything comes off with car soap and wheel brushes.

I usually use a tire cleaner. If they aren't real bad, just a tire brush.
 
I have steelies with plastic hubcaps so Gold Class and a wheel/tire brush gets the crud off. On neglected wheels I use Optimum Power Clean with a Raceglaze XL brush for the barrels. I used to use Meg's All Wheel Cleaner (OTC) but ditched it after reading about the damage that acidic wheel cleaners can do.
 
CrownKote said:
i wasn't trying to nag on you at all... just explaining the problems with using a highly caustic house cleaning product on a car's sensitive parts...
Click to expand...

I took no offense to it, so no worries. I have meguiars gold classic for the wash, so i'll sud up a brush and have at it with just tires next time. Wheels always get used with the gold classic.
 
Matt said:
Yeap, I don't use a wheel cleaner unless absolutely necessary- which is generally only if cleaning a friends car that hasn't had the wheels cleaned in months.


On cars I normally maintain, car wash soap and a sponge/ boars hair brush to clean. Sometimes I use Meg's APC (regular green stuff) if I haven't cleaned the wheels for a few weeks- does a good job.
Click to expand...

Is the green megs APC at 4:1 safe for all wheels?
 
I personally have multiple wheel cleaners. I've tried using car wash soap...and it just doesn't do enough for me. When I want to get the inside of the wheel nice and clean...there's nothing like some wheel acid, or Sonax depending on the type of rim.

I've never gotten the results I want off of car wash soap. If the customer has been to me recently, and the rims are protected...then that's different. But most the time my customers visit once or twice a year. By that time...they need a good cleaning.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top