What wheel cleaner for painted aluminum wheels?

68bowtie

68bowtie

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I just got some painted and clear coated aluminum wheels for my chevelle and was wondering whats a good wheel cleaner.
thanks
 
Honestly just soap and water would be the safest. If that can't cut it try something a little more aggressive like a clear coat safe APC
 
Are the wheels new?

To maintain them, Chemical Guys Diablo Gel would work great. You can dilute it to suit your needs.
 
You can use Sonax but kinda of $$ but works great. I have painted and clear coated wheels.
 
Since your wheels are clear coated, you can use pretty much any wheel cleaner safely. However, since they're brand new, there's no need for anything strong. Griot's Wheel Cleaner and CG Diablo(diluted 3:1 - 6:1) are both good ones for maintaining. These are both VERY safe, too! If you want a gel type, go with CG Diablo. If you don't need that, Griot's(green) would be an excellent choice as well.
 
As long as they remain in good shape, FivePoint.0 is bang on the money but my experience is that, sooner or later, something goes wrong when using the stronger products and you end up with a mess. So I would definitely stick to products which are free of caustics such as sodium hydroxide and if you want to go to acids, probably nothing stronger than oxalic as a base. By doing this, even if something goes wrong and the aluminium manages to become exposed, you won't do any harm to the rim itself.

All the best
 
If you seal your wheels, you won't need a wheel cleaner (soap and water). Wheel sealants like Blackfire is so easy to apply why would you want to use a dedicated wheel cleaner $$$.
 
Rsurfer said:
If you seal your wheels, you won't need a wheel cleaner (soap and water). Wheel sealants like Blackfire is so easy to apply why would you want to use a dedicated wheel cleaner $$$.
Click to expand...
The barrels are kind of hard to seal. :p
 
I keep spotless wheels that are coated, so I never need anything caustic to clean them. I like (in no order):

1. DP - wait & get it on BOGO.

2. DIablo 1:4

3. Sticky Wheel Cleaner 1:5.

#3 is by far the best deal out there price wise. You dilute it 1:5, so its basically 1/5 the price of other ""safe" wheel cleaners.

Foams up awesome with a BH Brush:

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Which wheel sealants better blackfire or the dp wheel sealant? I know the blackfire 2x's the dp stuff.
 
Rsurfer said:
If you seal your wheels, you won't need a wheel cleaner (soap and water). Wheel sealants like Blackfire is so easy to apply why would you want to use a dedicated wheel cleaner $$$.
Click to expand...

This is true for most road soils but not so for brake dust. Whilst it is not so common for you guys to do, in the UK we are bombarded by people spraying bleeding wheel cleaners onto their wheels to try to show the most significant bleed. The laugh of it is that these are often people who insist that regular cleaning need only be done with shampoo when the wheels are properly sealed. The fact of it is that it is almost impossible to stop brake dust, at several hundred degrees, from becoming embedded in the surface. Whilst I appreciate not everyone can afford to do this, to keep your wheels genuinely clean, you really need a mild iron removing product used on a regular basis. We recommend the use of one of our products diluted down and the proof is plain for all to see - the sealed wheel which is only cleaned with shampoo will bleed significantly a couple of months in whilst the wheel which is routinely cleaned by the pH neutral bleeding cleaner (diluted) shows very little reaction to the full strength iron remover.

As I mentioned, the primary reason not to do this has to be financial since this sort of maintenance washing will be more or less as harmless as washing with regular shampoo.
 
IME, Autoglym non acid wheel cleaner represents a superior product- buying 2 gallons at a time, it's about $40/gallon with shipping included. Great at cleaning AND removing brake dust. Leave a shine/glow on the rims unlike any other product you've used. If ur interested, send me a pm and I'll give u the buying info. It's in the WOW category.
 
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