Auto Obsessed here today we're showing you how to properly clean and prepare the inner
and outer surfaces of a wheel for ceramic coating how to get them clean and how to keep them clean
in some extreme cases you see a car in the street with dirty wheels
like wheels that have never ever been cleaned completely coated black with dirt and brake dust
and you're like wow that looks horrible but when wheels are clean when the wheels
tires and brakes are all fresh and sharp it totally makes the look of the car a truck
clean wheels are a great reason to look back and admire your car in a parking lot but the problem
is this is the part of the car that touches the ground every time you drive that dirt gets up onto
the wheel and every time you hit the brakes you're showering the wheel in fine metallic dust so how
do we get them clean and how do we keep them clean for longer the answer is a ceramic coating
doing a thorough clean preparing the wheel so that it's a perfectly clean surface
and applying a ceramic coating to the wheels that's the best way to keep the wheels clean
ceramic coatings create a semi-permanent hydrophobic layer that repels dirt and water
and when that layer is present on the wheel's surface it makes it so the brake dust doesn't
readily stick on the wheel and it makes it so the wheel washes clean much easier and much faster to
do a preparation wash for a ceramic coating it's best when the wheels are off the car with the
wheels off we have access to all the sides of the wheel and access to the surfaces so we can do a
much better job cleaning and getting them cleaned up if there's a significant buildup on the wheel
and this can happen in the corners and the angles where the spokes meet the barrel of the wheel
it can take multiple stages to completely wash the dirt and break dust off of the wheel
in addition you'll likely be dealing with more than just cleaning the wheels such as
iron removal tar removal and likely wheel weight adhesive if the tires have been previously changed
if the wheels have medium to heavy brake dust buildup and have not been maintained regularly
then we would start out with the heavy wheel cleaner follow the manufacturer's directions don't
let the cleaner dwell too long some strong wheel cleaners can only sit for a couple of minutes
spray the cleaner around the barrel of the wheel the wheel spokes get a wash bucket
fill it with water and an automotive shampoo and start to brush that wheel and agitate the cleaner
wheel cleaning goes a lot faster when you have some good brushes at hand
we recommend a curved tire brush with nylon bristles for scrubbing the tire you really
want something sturdy to lift the dirt out of the rubber depending on the situation you may be able
to tackle the rubber while the wheel cleaner is dwelling this is what we did on these wheels
we used an APC on the rubber and we are scrubbing the rubber while the wheel cleaner is loosening
the debris build up on the wheels when we're cleaning wheels we're cleaning the tires too
on the wide open surfaces of the wheel we like using a wide force hair brush but microfiber wash
mitts are also effective here man these wheels were filthy this is a case where we need to do
multiple stages with wheel cleaner to eliminate all the dirt and get the surface perfectly clean
agitate every surface you can lift all the dirt you can and then give it a rinse you can see on
these wheels we still have buildup of brake dust in the spokes in other areas so we'll go on to
a second stage of cleaning using an iron remover you can see the iron remover working on the wheels
any of the dirty areas that did not come completely clean
you can see the product is reacting to the brake dust and turning in a purple color
now we have to deal with the tar wheel cleaners do not dissolve tar
so we have to use a dedicated tar remover spray this onto the rims and let it dwell you can see
the tar slowly dissolving which is helping loosen it up we agitate it again and have to tackle
the car again with more product and a plastic razor blade to get the larger globs of tar off
now all that is left is that leftover glue residue left behind from the tire shop from
a time when the rubber was changed here we use a strong paint safe adhesive remover
spray on let it dwell and gently loosen with the plastic razor blade
always assess your situation to determine what methods to use on your rims to ensure that you
do not damage the finish test and be gentle if you have a delicate finish you can scratch the
finish if you're using a plastic razor blade when there is sand and debris present or
if you're applying too much pressure we wash one more time to remove any of the remaining debris
and the product residue then rinse all the stages of washing are done now we flip the wheel over and
get started with the outer face of the wheel and tire same thing here cleaner over the entire wheel
and an APC on the tire let it dwell then start with the brushes having the right wheel brushes
can cut the wheel cleaning time by half or more depending on the wheel design something like a
large boar's hair brush for the face of the rim this is super soft it doesn't scratch anything and
really easy to use it also fits nicely into some of the grooves and nooks and crannies
a rubber brush this is a nice curved brush it's quite stiff and it's going to take off maybe
old tire dressings with silicones in them and it's going to give you that nice fresh detailed
look on the rubber a smaller detail brush this gets in between the spokes really nicely
or maybe we have larger calipers on the car and a bigger wheel brush doesn't fit this
collapses quite quite nicely all the way down even in these tight spokes that works amazing
likely need a detail brush something to get into all of the detail areas maybe around the valve
stem maybe around the lug nuts this one's really nice it slips right into the hole and then you can
just give it a twist and it'll go around the lug nut to clean it around the center caps is really
good maybe around the wheel weights and all the detail of the spokes and in between the rubber and
the rim face a brush set is really good because you have kind of all the sizes you needed you can
use this maybe to get in behind the spokes again we can go into some of the tighter areas the big
brush is great to get into the full barrel of the wheel so we can get all the way back regardless
of how big that wheel is some some vehicles have huge rear wheels over 300s
on the back so huge wheels this one's awesome for that you know once once you have your wheels done
like this you're gonna you're gonna appreciate the difference between a wheel that's only cleaned on
its face and the barrels are dirty to one that the whole face and the barrels are clean too it just
it just sets the car off next we're going to dry the wheels with a master blaster
now we inspect the rims to determine if they need more attention such as
clean and possible polishing these wheels likely have never been thoroughly cleaned
and the 10 years and over 200,000 kilometers of use and even after all the cleaning stages
we still have yellowing and some leftover contaminants that we have to deal with so
we'll use clay to pick up the contamination then go to polishing to try and remove the yellowing
the clay works great to remove any contaminants that are on top of the surface here you can
see we're picking up quite a bit that was left behind even after the chemical cleaning stages
now we move on to light polishing we have to do this because of the condition of the rims
even after all the cleaning and clean they're still not bright and shiny
we start out with doing a large area by hand with a three inch pad and we can see that we're picking
up debris and starting to see these improve a lot let's do some final polishing by machine
this will work the polish in better and also helps get into all those tight and smaller spaces
we have to do the final prep to the wheel before we apply the ceramic coating
we're going to wipe down the surface to remove any remaining oils and debris and prepare the
surface so it's as clean as it can be to provide the best possible bond with the ceramic coating
the final step a ceramic coating is a long life product that will protect the wheels finish and
also provide a hydrophobic layer that will help keep the wheels cleaner a little longer
and make it so much easier to clean them when you wash your vehicle
I personally have been using ceramic coatings on my wheels since 2010
and it's the best product to use on most wheel finishes to apply ceramic coating apply the
ceramic coating to a suede microfiber applicator and apply to all the painted surfaces of the rim
once all areas are coated then let sit for a couple of minutes
then lightly remove with the microfiber towel
don't apply too much pressure just a gentle wiping motion
is enough to remove excess coating level out the high spots and clear up any smears or streaks
you can now move on to the other side of the wheel
you may have to use different applicators to get into all the hard to reach areas
before the coating has time to cure closely inspect the surface with a light
to ensure that you haven't missed any areas
once the wheels are coated let them sit and cure properly before handling them again
one of the biggest things and I can't emphasize this enough is to do full prep on the wheel before
we put on the semi-permanent ceramic coating onto the wheels doing that you're one going to
get the best adhesion you're going to get the longest life I mean this takes a lot of time to
do this so do not you know do not cut corners this isn't something that's going to be quick
normally this is going to take at least one hour per wheel and that's after they're off the vehicle
so that this is quite a time commitment and the last thing you want to do is maybe miss a step
so one of the most important things is is to do the final wipe down with the appropriate products
so we're using the CarPro DLUX the appropriate product is CarPro Eraser so you can think of this
kind of like a wax and goose remover it's the final thing that we're gonna do so the wheel's
been washed you've done all the stages that we've gone through we did our last wash rinse and dry
we've polished and now we're ready to apply the coating you're going to go ahead and use
the CarPro Eraser we're going to wipe down the wheel and now we're ready to apply the coating the
CarPro DLUX comes with the applicator so all you need is some gloves and some microfiber towels
to level it off after the after you're finished the ceramic coating and maybe
next when you're doing your maintenance wash one of the biggest things to understand too is
you don't want to use strong wheel cleaners after that so you want to use a mild wheel cleaner
something that's designed to work with ceramic coatings something that's not going to be
too harsh and it's going to degrade the coating basically as I just mentioned it's going to take a
lot of time to do this you don't want to do a few washes and and potentially take off the coating or
highly degrade the coating and it won't give you that that same durability so why would you want to
do that after investing all that time use a nice mild wheel cleaner to protect the coating and also
to to be honest you're going to find that these wheels are going to stay a lot cleaner longer
they're going to be a lot easier to maintain and you actually don't need a strong product now
look at the final result all the effort is paid off these wheels look so much brighter and look
amazing on this luxury SUV you can expect around one year of durability for a daily driver and up
to a couple of years for a summer driven vehicle another thing you'll notice is that the brake dust
does not stick as easy so the wheels will stay cleaner longer and cleanup is so much easier and
will save you time when you're hand washing your vehicle I'm very pleased with the results here I
hope you enjoyed watching this how to video and can apply some of the techniques to your vehicle
to make it Auto Obsessed. Auto Obsessed has more projects lined up for the coming months so please
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