Newbie Questions on Cleaning/Drying/Dressing Wheels

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mark2dx

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Hey All!

Next time I wash my ride I plan on cleaning and dressing my tires and rims, but I wasn't sure on the correct process to do so. My game plan sounds good on paper, but I would love to hear feedback or suggestions on how I could improve upon it.

Standard Wash
With a standard wash product + hose, it's recommended to clean these areas first. So if I was to do it this way, I would:

- Clean/brush/rinse each wheel individually
- Wash/rinse the car normally
- Dry the car normally (maybe dry the wheels first to avoid water spots?)
- Dress the paint with wax, as needed
- Dress the tires and rims

Rinseless Wash
Rinseless works the opposite of a standard wash, and I've heard it's best to do the wheels last. So my process for rinseless would be:

- Wash/dry each panel individually
- Clean/brush/rinse each wheel individually
- Dry panel overspray from hosing wheels? Perhaps go for a slower stream and let it run over the wheels like a waterfall
- Dress the paint with wax as needed
- Dress the tires and rims

Here's the products I plan on using for the wheels:
OPC (rubber)
Pinnacle Wheel Cleaner
Black Onyx Tire Gel
Cobra Flex Foam Tire Dressing Applicators

Does that sound about right?Im the MAN
 
If you're doing a rinse-less wash you do not need to use your hose, neither on the wheels nor the panels. You need a product like ONR for that.

I really like the Black Onyx Tire Gel, good choice! :D
 
Still have a bunch of DP Rinseless Wash & Gloss from when it went BOGO, so I'm good on that :xyxthumbs:.

Would I have to worry about residue from the OPC/Pinnacle/Rinseless if I didn't hose that area off? Or would I just have to hand dry the rubber along with the rims with a microfiber, rather than letting it air dry?
 
No worries about residue from a rinseless. Yes, I always wipe tires dry with a terry rag; mf on the wheels.
 
I just dry both with a towel (I only use this towel for tires/wheels). Those products are designed to be wiped instead of rinsed...if you rinse them, you'll have to dry them with a towel anyway, so no need to do double work.
Also ONR type of products leave a protection finish, if you rinse them that protections may be diminished...just my 0.02/
 
Awesome, it sounds like the terry towel was the missing link. I usually do a rinseless wash on my car weekly, so this will let me continue doing that even when I dress up the tires.

Thanks guys :dblthumb2:
 
I recently got some ONR in and have been doing a regular wash once a week and rinseless every 2 day. My car has been SPOTLESS lol But I usually dry my rims with an old microfiber. I love Black Onyx. I like a little more of a shinny look to my tires and Black Onyx has the best shine with the smallest amount of sling. Opti-bond tire gel has NO sling but its not quite as glossy
 
shoeless89 said:
I recently got some ONR in and have been doing a regular wash once a week and rinseless every 2 day. My car has been SPOTLESS lol But I usually dry my rims with an old microfiber. I love Black Onyx. I like a little more of a shinny look to my tires and Black Onyx has the best shine with the smallest amount of sling. Opti-bond tire gel has NO sling but its not quite as glossy
Click to expand...

Black Onyx is actually my first dressing purchase, since it was so highly spoken of here on the forum. I also picked up some Ultima Trim and Tire Guard to supple up the rest of the rubber around the car, so I'm hoping to get a nice deep black all around to compliment the paint :buffing:
 
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