Your preferred method for detailing expensive wheels?

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shadow536

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Hello everyone. I did some searching through the forum and the site for what people use on their wheels, but with so many different types of wheels, it's hard to tell what works best on what. So, I decided to make a topic for my specific scenario and I hope that's okay.

I am soon to be the proud owner of some wheels manufactured by Rays. They are forged Volk wheels. I believe they are powder coated black, diamond cut on the lip, and then cleared.

My goal is to clean them every weekend as they will be on my daily driver. I've heard people say just use car soap on delicate clear, but my car soap is Wolfgang Uber Rinseless. I don't know how well a rinseless would work. I also know acidic cleaners are a guaranteed way to mess up the finish.

So, what would be your preferred method for keeping these wheels clean and in good shape? Thank you all for any advice you can offer.
 
Wash them with a low pH soap and rinse.Then I would seal them up with a good quality coating such as gyeon.Use what ever car wash soap with no wax if your going to coat them.If not use a quality car wash soap found any where just dilute.carpro reset may be a start .
 
Like GSKR said look into a wheel coating. I put PBL Wheel on last April, and only clean with Megs Hyper wash and when I am feeling lazy just some QD and wheel towel, here is a picture from like a week or so ago.

View attachment 55242

Just stock wheels.
 
A wheel coating is a great start but as far as maintaining I use Chemical Guys Sticky Citrus or Diablo for those cleanings. As far as when the wheels get "bad" I use Meg's Mirror Brite wheel cleaner or DUB.

BTW do you have a pic of these wheels? Kinda confused because you said Rays and then Volk.

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View attachment 55254

I don't have a picture on me, but here's a shot I found on the internet. I said Volk to give an idea of the style. Rays engineering makes the Volk brand and these wheels are made by Rays for Mazda Racing in the same style and forging as their Volk brand.

So, the consensus so far is buy good car soap and use wheel brushes to agitate and then rinse? What's the best cleaning, pH neutral soap recommendation for wheels?
 
My volks just came in. I'm going to go with some type of coating but I am still deciding on what one.

 
I'd go with DLUX or Gtechniq C5 wheel armor. I've had good results with these two coatings.

I do a lot of rinseless washes and clean them that way. When I decide to do a 2 bucket wash, I'll use something like hyper wash with various brushes like the wheel woolies, boars hair brush and lug nut brush.

Every 6 months I use an iron remover wheel cleaner for a deep decon wash of the wheels. That is the only time I use a wheel cleaner.




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So a coating would be a great starting point for you to protect them and make cleaning easier in the long run. If you're not comfortable with applying, then seek a professional to do so. If thats not in the budget, look at sealing them. CarPro Reload, CarPro Hyrd02, Optimum Opti Seal will work great for you. Then, you can clean your wheels with rinseless that you have. Here`s how you would clean them:

1. Pre-soak (with water hose or with rinseless solution from a sprayer, a pressurized sprayer is what I would recommend)
2. Wipe the wheel down well with a rinseless soaked Microfiber towel.
3. Dry the wheel with a dry Microfiber towel (get some plush towels if you're worried about scratching and designate them wheels only)
4. Decontaminate every 3 to 4 months (Iron X)
5. Reseal after decontamination (If not coated)

Boom! Your wheels are now clean.
 
Very nice, I love Volks/Rays wheels. That design should fairly easy to care for.

Regardless of what LSP you go with, just keep up with the maintenance with the methods above and they should look good for a long time.

Since they are new, I would not use a bristle style brush to clean them for fear of scratching them.

Wheel Woolies are nice and are not very aggressive.

Wheel Woolies 3-Piece Kit, wheel cleaning tools, wheel brushes

I think these

Lake Country Wool Wheel Washing Mitt

work well for cleaning spokes and faces. I believe I get better results and miss less with these as apposed to using a wheel face brush.
 
Thank you all for all the suggestions. I'll probably place an order today. So far, I'm thinking:

Dedicated wash bucket
Meguirs Hyper Wash
Wheel woolies
Lake country wool wheel washing mitt
Carpro Hydro2


Let me know if there is anything I'm missing. Also, is a garden hose set to the strongest jet enough for Hydro2 on wheels?
 
The Guz said:
I'd go with DLUX or Gtechniq C5 wheel armor. I've had good results with these two coatings.
Click to expand...


Another vote for Gtechniq C5 Wheel Armor, gtech wheel coatings


I'm very impressed by it's longevity. It's what I use on our MB wheels.


At Mobile Tech This year I taught a class on the top 10 tool you need to start a detailing business. Many of these tools had to do with SAFE and EFFECTIVE washing.



Mobile Tech Expo 2017 - Classes this year



1: The top 10 must have tools for starting and running a successful detailing business
Instructor - Mike Phillips
Room: Dade/Florida Keys
Time: 8:00-8:45am

Quality never costs money it makes money. Anyone starting a new detailing business needs a bare minimum of tools to get started. Mike Phillips from Autogeek presents his recommendations to get your business started out on the right path focusing on quality tools that won’t let you down.​


Here's one brush I showed in the class and I use myself everytime I wash my own car's wheels or anyone elses.

Wheel Woolies Boar’s Hair Wheel Brush

I also use it for Cosmetic Engine Detailing. It is a GREAT wheel cleaning brush especially after you coat your wheels and especially when you use a great wheel cleaner. For cleaning wheels without the fear of staining them I use either

SONAX Wheel Cleaner, all wheel cleaner, chrome wheel cleaner, aluminum wheel cleaner, full effect wheel cleaner

or

McKee's 37 Foaming Wheel Cleaner Gel, color changing wheel cleaner, iron remover


The last thing you want to do is use a wheel cleaner that will stain the finish on your rims as it will most likely be impossible to undo the damage.




It Detail Fest I'm teaching a class

How to correctly wash and dry your car to avoid swirls and maintain your car's finish


Long title, not sure how I wrote that? Big picture is this, MOST of the swirls, scratches and dulling to the finish on a car comes from how you wash it so I'll cover how to do it the right way and how to do the safe way. For anyone attending Detail Fest this class is scheduled for 9:15am on Saturday in Classroom #100


http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...107960-detail-fest-2017-seminar-schedule.html



Get the Wheel Woolies Boar's Hair Brush and definitely get the Wheel Woolies 3-piece kit you'll love these brushes and they will make keeping your rims clean fast and easy and that's what you want when it comes to cleaning wheels


:)
 
1gIahvP.jpg


I finally was able to take a photo of the wheel. Thank you for all the input Mike! I know I'm getting myself into quite the challenge. I'll definitely be stocking up on those brushes and one of those wheel cleaners in case soap doesn't cut it. I'm afraid to put a coating on it right now though. I think I'll stick to a sealant until I've practiced more and feel more confident.
 
Current shopping cart is: bucket, megs hyper wash, sonax cleaner, Hydro2, wheel woolies, wheel mitt

I just realized I'm missing drying towels. Are the black wheel microfibers soft enough or should I go softer? I think that's the last thing I need. Thanks again for all the help.
 
Eldorado2k said:
Metro Blaster SideKick is way better than any towel when it comes to drying wheels..

Metro Blaster SideKick



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Click to expand...

I really appreciate the suggestion, but I'm not a fan of blow drying. I prefer to use towels. I prefer the big guzzlers for paint, but I need something smaller for wheels that's still gentle
 
Order has been placed:

Wash bucket
Wheel woolies
Lake Country wheel mitt
Meg's Hyper Wash 1 gal
Sonax full effect wheel cleaner x2
Carpro Hydro2
Microfiber wheel towels pack of 6
Gift: Travel bag

That should be a good starting point. Again, thank you all for the help. Feel free to keep suggesting things as I am no stranger to placing autogeek orders to try new things. This is my second order this month haha.
 
Dave.0 said:
I only use Gyeon Rim or Kamikaze Stance rim coatings and only have to use soap and water to wash my rims.
Click to expand...

How convenient are those coatings if you still have to get down there and wash the wheels with soap & water?

I'd rather have a great wheel cleaner on hand to simply spray and rinse.

e5deacd328e0a8a41886535f3eb263ed.jpg


34e58adb5ac94881d8cc9e9b632b3f3a.jpg


Done.

c18c125c2c47fbc084a424840343a2c3.jpg


And if I'm cleaning my wheels & tires, D143 can also do it by simply spray & rinse because they almost never get dirty enough to need agitation + it cleans the topical dirt off the tires without removing the tire coating.



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Hey guys, I'm back with a question. Is the Daytona speedmaster safe or is it too stiff for comfort?

I'm noticing that I generate way more brake dust than I thought and the amount of elbow grease to get that black perfect with car soap is quite a lot. I plan on using sonax every week to make the job easier. It isn't economical, but I'm not here to save money haha. I just want to make sure repeated uses of sonax with the speedmaster isn't going to scratch or dull the clear coat.
 
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