How to Clean & Coat the INSIDE of your car's wheels

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

How to Clean & Coat the INSIDE of your car's wheels



For those of you that like every part of your car detailed to the max! Or for those of you that offer complete wheel and tire detailing...


I had an axle flange gasket leaking on the Corporate 14-Bold Rearend on my truck so I had to replace the gasket. I also wanted to rotate the tires from front to rear. I also wanted to coat the inside of my BRP Rims and seal the inside of the tires with TUFF Shine Tire Clear Coat. I also wanted to check and re-torque all the lug nuts, just to make sure... So I decided to knock out 5 projects all at once and then share it all here on the forum.


Undoing the other guys botched assembly work
Keep in mind, I bought this truck this way, that is some Billy Bob used high heat silicone when they assembled the axle to the hub. First you don't need to use silicone when you install a new gasket and torque the axle shaft down properly and second, when you do use silicone you use a thin film, not gobs of the stuff like you see here.

I covered the disc brake assembly because I'm going to be spraying solvent and I don't want to transfer anything onto the brake discs by accident.

No picture of this but I did stick small tube on the end of our Shop-Vac and sucked out all the dirt and silicone out of the threads where the axle bolts go and then swapped them with solvent followed by oil using the foam detailing sticks we sell on Autogeek.net

This is only half of what came out of the threaded holes..

Nice...

Okay, someone else's mess cleaned up and now it's time to get the back side of the wheels and tires cleaned up.

That's ugly, even if you don't see it because it's on the inside of the truck it's still ugly...

Sunny Saturday in Sunny Stuart, Florida... I'm going to use Detailer's Wheel Cleaner to clean both the wheels and the tires.

Ugly...

Ugly....

I sprayed and scrubbed the back of the tires THREE times to get them pretty clean. I'm not aiming to win a car show with the back of my tires so I'm not looking for perfection but at the same time I want them clean and I want the TUFF Shine Tire Clear Coat to properly bond to the rubber.

Dum de dum dum dum.... could be at the pool...

Autogeek carries dozens of car detailing brushes, to clean just about any shape, size or design of wheel...

This brush is thick but with a little twisting I was able to get it to bottom out inside the wheel barrel to get it really clean...

Okay, after sweating for about an hour both wheels and tires are surgically clean...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Next I'm going to clean the paint on the backs of the wheels using Detailer's Coating Prep Polish by hand...

The paint is clean but kind of skanky looking...

Microfiber applicator to provide some gentle scrubbing power...

Learning how to really use my Canon T5I camera to capture motion...

Wiped the excess residue out with a microfiber towel...

The below picture actually show just how clean I was able to get the wheels when I washed them as I'm not pulling any dirt with the coating prep polish...

Time to apply Detailer's Wheel Coating, for this I'm using a Blue Finger Pocket, note the hard to capture spray coming out of the nozzle shot...

Next I sprayed some directly onto the wheel...

Rubber the coating in really well.... I don't ever want to do this again if I don't have to, I could have been at the pool on this day...

Coating everything, including the backs of the spokes...

And there we go, the backs of the wheels are completely coated and protected. This will make cleaning them faster and easier into the future!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Next I transferred some TUFF Shine Tire Clear Coat to a spray bottle and misted it all over the rubber and then scrubbed it in using a Horse Hair Brush. Kind of a Caveman Technique but it was the best way to work the product into and around all the lugs.
(no picture of the horse hair brush being used to scrub)

After scrubbing the tires to death, I then used the Tornador Air Gun to Tornado Blast any excess residue into nothingness...

This is one of my favorite tools, it really works great!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Okay wheels and tires are clean, coated and sealed, now to clean up my wheel jewelery real quick before assembly. We also carre Wurth Clean-Solve and 1z Multi-Oil on Autogeek.net a well as the cool little foam detailing sticks. I simply rubbed the outsides down with some oil on a rag and then swabbed the insides of the lug nuts and then blue them out with the Tornador Air Gun. After that I swabbed them again with a little oil.

Time to install the axle shaft with a new NAPA Gasket...

Neat and clean...

This wheel and tire was on the front... now it's getting installed on the back. The rearend has posi-track gears and it's kind of hard to avoid spinning the back tires over all the time so I need to equally wear out the front at over $800.00 a piece... got to get my money's worth out of them...

That's what I'm talking about...

A few weeks ago, before the coatings were introduced I machine scrubbed the outside of the tire and then sealed them with TUFF Shine Tire Clear Coat.

Here's the front, ready to go togheter...

Done!

And done...

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Here's all the cool products and tools I used for this project...



On Autogeek.net


Detailer's Paint Coating Prep

Detailer's Wheel Coating

Detailer's Wheel Cleaner

TUFF SHINE Tire Clear Coat

Tornador Air Blow Out Gun

Horse Hair Brush

Carrand Sheepskin Wheel Cleaner

Carrand Deluxe Tire & Bumper Brush

Lake Country Detail Sticks 12 Pack

Wolfgang Finger Pockets - 3 Pack

 

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Looks nice Mike! You see my recent thread in product reviews? I used the DP coating on my Kia's wheels and painted the brake calipers.

Sent from my Transformer using Tapatalk 4

 

[loudog2]

Nice work! I need some stands badly. Mike, what temperate max will that wheel coating withstand?

 

[lunchboxmunchy]

Nicely done Mike! Now, you have to move to the driver's side and do those rims. Lol. Im the MAN

 

[Calendyr]

That's what I was gonna ask. Could you show us how to paint the brake caliper safelly at some point?

Your wheels really look nice after all this work you did, great stuff!

 

[Pats300zx]

Great job Mike !!!!

 

[Paul Mitchell]

Nice work Mike. You're getting to be a quite a photographer as well as a great detailer. Those photos really show off your work.

 

[goodinblack]

Nice truck. Love the square body

 

[A2 Auto Spa]

Great job Mike.

 

[lawrenceSA]

Great job and write up, and really nice pics too.... once you get the hang of things like shutter speed etc, creating the 'motion' shots for example will be a lot easier to accomplish.

That truck of yours is really nice - not something we would see very often over here in South Africa.

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Looks nice Mike! You see my recent thread in product reviews? I used the DP coating on my Kia's wheels and painted the brake calipers.

Sent from my Transformer using Tapatalk 4

Just now checked out the Kia Brake Caliper thread, looks so much better after you cleaned an painted the calipers. I'll do this to my trucks too but not till the timing is right.

Nice photography work too! And good proactive safety practice, like my buddy Renny Doyle is famous for saying,

If it's on your skin... it's in you...


DP Wheel Coating

:dblthumb2:

 

[rms64]

Mike, awesome writeup and photography - I particularly like the "spray mist" shot which I am guessing you somehow had lit up from behind your finger somehow .

Your truck is ridiculously cool - love it!

 

[parttimer]

I pull my wheels every few months to clean them, giant 20" rims show any dirt hidden on the inside. Perhaps I need to protect them as well, thanks for the write up.

 

[parttimer]

Whooops, checking your product list you show paint coating prep and paint coating but no wheel seal, whats the deal. Poetry at its finest....

Trying to put together an order!

 

[Mike PhillipsMike Phillips is verified member.]

Nice work! I need some stands badly. Mike, what temperate max will that wheel coating withstand?

Off hand I don't know but I'll see if I can find out. Now that the hard work of cleaning and coating them is done with, in the future anytime I take the wheels off I'll probably do a refresh application, just to "maintain" the ease of washing the back of the rims. Same for the back of the tires.

Nicely done Mike! Now, you have to move to the driver's side and do those rims. Lol.

Good eye!

Actually, the weekend before I did the same gasket replacement work to the axle shaft on the driver's side but I only cleaned and coated the back rim and tire, not the front. My bad as I was in a hurry to wrap things up and get home to see the wife. So I'll get the front driver's side wheel and tire here in the near future. Have relatives over this weekend so can't play with the truck this weekend.

That's what I was gonna ask. Could you show us how to paint the brake caliper safely at some point?

Your wheels really look nice after all this work you did, great stuff!

I'd love to do this type of project. I really like doing my own wrenching and restoration of the mechanicals on cars and I've done a lot of this over the years. Here's a couple of my favorite pictures after I rebuilt the drum brakes on my 1-ton truck.


Here's a few teaser shots... this is a Corporate 14 Bolt 1-ton rear brake assembly the way I got it when I bought the truck....

Here's after I rebuilt everything...

Great job Mike !!!!

Thanks Pat...

Nice work Mike. You're getting to be a quite a photographer as well as a great detailer. Those photos really show off your work.

Thanks Paul... still have lots to learn about both photography and car detailing, always the perpetual student.

Nice truck. Love the square body

Thank you and me too, that is I really like this body style. Until I bought it I was pretty much stuck on the older, more traditional 1973 to 1979 style, I've had a few of these,

Great job Mike.

Thanks... just basic stuff though... hardest part is getting the wheels and tires back on... they're h-e-a-v-y !!!

Great job and write up, and really nice pics too.... once you get the hang of things like shutter speed etc, creating the 'motion' shots for example will be a lot easier to accomplish.

Yeperdoo... that's what I do now for a "motion shot" change my shutter speed. I'm taking almost all my shots now in the "Manual" mode with either the flash or without the flash.

That truck of yours is really nice - not something we would see very often over here in South Africa.

I imagine it would be a rear sight down you way. I also shared it on the Dodo Juice forum and the guys on the other side of the pond really like it too. It's a blast to drive and every time I go anywhere I get lots of thumbs-ups and if I stop anywhere and get out, "Car Guys" always come over and strike-up a conversation.

I volunteered it to my buddy's Bruno Massel and Matt Steel for the show Truck U as some of their sponsors like LMC offer a lot of products for trucks like mine, so maybe they'll give me a call someday.

 

[allenk4]

Griot's Undercarriage Spray would tie it all together nicely.