Invincible wheel care

[xyber 1]

With all the salt and snow, ive seen alot of posts around t'interweb about swapping to winter wheels or trying to protect them. Ive tried loads of different combinations and the latest one seems to be pretty hardwearing, so this may be helpful to quite a few on here

• First job is to get the wheels clean and free of tar spots and dirt, repolish if you want to, basically getting the wheels back to how you are happy with them.

• Next, when they are ready, get yourself so of the cotton stockinette cloth from Halfords and a bottle of this

http://www.i4detailing.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ei4detailing%2eco%2euk%2f&WD=isopropyl&PN=Isopropanol_cleaning_fluid_1%2ehtml%23aISO01L#aISO01L and fully degrease them as much as you possibly can, you will see the cloth turning black and dirty as you work

• Next, with a microfibre applicator pad, apply this

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/wheels-and-tyres/chemical-guys-wheel-guard/prod_197.html as per the instructions, you only need the coating to be very thin, so use sparingly, leave to haze like you would a wax, this stuff should take about 5-10 mins, then buff off with a microfibre cloth. Repeat for a second layer

Next buy a tin of this http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/wax/collinite-no-476s-super-doublecoat-auto-wax/prod_207.html it can be used on the wheels and the car so worth the money, it was designed to be used on boat hulls so its salt and detergent proof and one application lasts from 4-6 months and with normal washing will start to bead water again like its just been applied and looks amazing so quids in really,

• Apply 2 layers of this in the same way you applied the chemial guys stuff, but leave at least 1 hour inbetween layers, but if you can around 24hrs is even better.Make sure you apply all the layer in all the nooks and crannies, the more sealing you do at this point, the easier keeping the wheels spotless is.

• Now to clean the wheels all you need to do is rinse of the worst of the crap, then wash as you would the rest of the car, with a lambswool mitt and your normal car shampoo, no wheels cleaners or anything, they will only strip off the protection!! This stuff is the nuts

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/washing-and-drying/chemical-guys-citrus-wash-gloss/prod_345.html

I applied this to my Bentley wheels 5 months ago, theyve been through all the road salt and snow, including when it was really cold and didnt get washed for 6 weeks and still nothing got through the protection and thats on EBC yellow brake pads so a pretty hardcore test

Just remember that polished aluminium will oxidize no matter what, but atleast this will stop pitting and corrosion from getting to the surface and making it easier to give a quick polish up next time and slow the oxidization alot.

SHINEY SHINEY :-p

[VR6Nat 9]

Good write up and good products too , im a big fan of Chemical guys stuff.... (i pretty much did this just to store mine for winter, just used slightly different products! lol)

[Ben Seabrook 4]

very good write up mate have stickied it and will copy it into the knowledge vault too

[VRTDan 0]

Cheers Marc! I will be giving the Collinite a go ASAP. Also never tried chemical guys. When my megs runs out I'l be taking some of that for a test run!

[bungy 2]

I've been using the wheel guard for a while now and totally recommend it.

[patpong_pete 0]

Marc

what about your old TT Comps ?

they were super polished

how did u keep them so clean and protected from the elements

same process or different products

thanks in advance for advice pete

[xyber 1]

I used jetseal and wax on them but it was no where near as good. I also used to polish then up abit every few weeks with belgom alu and brilliant metal polish using a little 12v halfords polisher and a wool pad, then sealed. They got sold though because I was sick of doing it. Still my favourite non splits wheel on a mk3, but keeping on top of them to the standard I wanted was a nightmare