Make sure you have some wheel brightener on hand. Stuff is magical on caked brake dust. I ONLY bring it out of the garage for that occasion as its way too strong for most wheels. I would pick up a pack of plastic razor blades also and a long reach razor blade so that your hand doesn't start cramping. Good luck. Let us know how it turns out!
Oh, and coat them! when brake dust sits for a long time it eats the finish off the wheel so your hard work will go to waste very quickly if not coated.
THIS!!!
Given the right tools, you can get wheels very VERY clean while still on the vehicle. (
Unless they are stamped steel with hubcaps.) I have both Daytona brushes, the Woolie trio, a lug brush, the lug foam T-handle cleaner, and a number of other brushes.
Even without any sort of pressure washer (I have a 1700 electric and a 3500 gas) cleaning is a snap with wheel brightener or wheel cleaner (non acid) both from Meguiar's. The trick is once you get them clean, KEEP them clean.
Wheels off cleaning for a daily driver is pointless unless the customer asks the detailer to do so. If the customer wants a thorough wheel cleaning of the inner barrel than thats on the customer needs. You should charge accordingly to the needs of the customer.
How long do you think it would take you to jack all four sides by yourself with one jack? making sure you set the jack on proper lift points as well as the jack stand on proper jack points without causing damage to the undercarriage/skirts. You dont wanna accidentally poke a hole through something with a jack stand. also making sure as you remove the lugs you dont accidentally leave a scratch, ding, or any damage as you remove em. What will you be using to remove em?
Not only unbolting the lugs without damage. But as well as when you pull off the wheel from the assembly. Make sure you don't injure yourself by grabbing the wheel from the face of the wheel trying to pull it off and getting your fingers stuck between the caliper and the wheel face. Ive seen it before many times
Do you know how to properly inspect the threads on the studs/lugs to make they are in working condition. do you know when not to remove a lug from a stud due to cross-threading/any other type of damage? what happens when you do remove a lug and the stud is no good because some worker at Discount Tire was to careless and slammed it back on the stud?
What if the car is lowered? do you have a low profile jack? what if the truck frame is to high for a jack? How will you know the proper torque spec? How will you know when to turn off the air ride on specific cars? how will you even know if the car has air ride? Will you have all the necessary sockets? make sure to have thin wall sockets. what if you brake a center cap? what if ones already broken but you find out after you pop off the cap? what if you brake a cap putting it back on? what if you round off a lug? how will you cover yourself?
This is pretty basic info, but if you really have no idea what to do, i would advice against it. This isnt to scare you away, but its proper knowledge you need to know before performing such tasks and giving you a heads up
What this is saying is, if you are not in the wheel & tire business, and don't have the insurance to CYA then removing wheels is a fairly good risk at best. You can tell people till you're blue in the face to re-torque their lug nuts after only ONE HUNDRED MILES, all day every day. But how many do you think actually do?
I had a Ford rollback that'd been at the dealership for a warranty axle seal replacement. I picked it up late one afternoon and had to head out early the next morning towards Savannah (Dublin) with a 6000 pound lead acid battery filled Georgia Power van on the bed, and a Caprice wagon on the wheel lift that was going to Jacksonville that was going to Hong Kong. Figured when I got to Dublin I'd check the lug nuts then drive on to the port. I had passed exit 5 on I-16E outside Macon when without any warning what so ever I got a wobble and WHAM my left rear wheel PASSED ME!
Lug nuts were loose with 4 backing off completely and it ended up causing 6 of 10 studs to shear off completely!
Totally destroyed two Alcoa wheels and 1 tire in the process. Had to call the office and get my wife to go to Ford for new studs and new lug nuts. Send another truck to grab two steel wheels and go to the Goodyear truck store, then load everything on his truck and come bring it all to me. Meanwhile I had to put the driveshaft in the Caprice and go find a tow truck in Macon because the electric van had to be at a meeting at 4:00, (and it was already 2:30).
Ended up fixing it out in the middle of nowhere with my BODY in the lane of traffic! :nomore:
Also ended up making me late to get to the port in Jacksonville, having to spend the night in a motel where you slept propped up against the wall with your finger on the trigger. Literally!
Made Ford pay out the nose for that one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They argued that I didn't re-torque the wheels, and I argued that I'd not been a hundred miles yet. (Close, but not quite there.)
Just imagine the guy with a ZR1, or 911 GTS pulling over to check, and properly torque his lug nuts. Don't think so. :dunno:
That being said, I'll do it, but only on garage queens, and ONLY for customers that are paying for wheel coating. Anything less and it stays on the car, period.
