while the rear wheels come clean with a few swipes & little scrubbing, i find i can't get the black grit (brake dust?) off the front wheels even with wheel brush & real effort. why is this? what can i do about it? tried a citrus cleanser to no avail.

also (i should know better than to ask), do you all clean back around to the inside of your wheels, on the unfinished, semi-hidden surfaces?

thanks, detail pros-
diana

 

The fronts are much harder than the rears. They get a lot more brake dust. You might need to get a wheel-specific cleaner, let it sit for a few minutes on the wheels, and then brush them down and rinse. Then you want to wax all 4 wheels with a synthetic wax - from then on, the dust should practically melt off with water (maybe a little mild wash - I just use a microfiber mit with my car wash soap water to get it off and it comes right off). If you keep them waxed it's a lot easier to get off.

 

front brakes work harder than the rear to stop the car straight.

try Prima WheelShield. it has a mild abrasive polish and protects
with its high temp wax in a one-step process.

or do it in 2 steps. step1 = ScratchX, step2 = your favorite wax.

i use to use CleanerWax by meg on stubborn wheels, but i think it
separated inside or rotted or something. im going to toss that
this week.

 

thanks, folks--

leadingme to one more question: will any of my zaino lineup act as "synthetic wax" on the wheels (z2, z6)? or do i need a different product?

 

SratchX on wheels? Just get wheels without scratchs Good Idea though.

 

yah, basically you're polishing out the grime from the top surface
of the clear. so similar to removing tar/oils that have stained your paint
and removing a very slight coat of the clear while removing the grime.

 

Ahh, I just clay I got some new wheels, as soon as I can get them clean, im going to put wheel sheild on.

 

yeah either that brand that has the naked girl on it or detailers stuff. You need a temperature rated wax for that.

So far, the best for me, a weekly detailer, is speedshine by griot's. It cleans off the wheels AFTER I scrub them with griot's wheel cleaner. Wheel specific cleaner is really key to washing off brake dust. I experimented on wheels that have not been cleaned in a year. 90% clean in one try of the wheel cleaner and a boars bristle brush. quick detailer adds a nice slick coat to the wheel if you do it 1-2x a week. takes about 1-2 mins between washes to make them sparkle. octaneguy showed me that.

 

Claying would work probably as well as Scratch-X...although I don't know if one would be any less labor-intensive than the other.

As far as wax options go...I got a bottle of Wheel Shield in my massive Christmas box with the PC, but I haven't used it yet since the Epic is holding up so well. Once a week or so I give them a little spray with Slick, wipe them down with a regular blue MF, and they're like new (aside from the little bit of curb rash I got last week...grr).

 

If you need to get real bad stuff off, simple green works.
Then clay and synthetic wax them.
Simple green did this.







Mark

 

oh, i like the simple green idea for the "green" part. if i can do that w/o wearing myself out scrubbing, that's my route. we'll see next weekend...thanks all!

 

dang, lotsie, that is clean! wow.

i just used my Griot's CarWash at about 2x the normal concentration
when i washed my SSR wheel's back side over the weekend. did pretty
well. i didn't want to risk getting any strange spots or something on
the front side. it's got a lot of crevises as it's a multi-piece wheel and
takes some effort to dry... although i used my shopvac to blow it dry
for the most part.

 

All good suggestions as to cleaning/waxing wheels, but I couldn't take it any more - had Scott @ Central Coast Coopers swap out the factory soot-generation units (aka factory brake pads) for Hawk ceramic pads - better braking, no squealing, minimal brake dust.

 

^^ i'd do the same if it was a daily driven car. my R90's when i was
using my MCS as a commuter at one time was black by the 3rd day.