If you have ceramic coated your wheels do you still use a brush to clean them? |
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07-13-2023, 09:33 AM | #1 |
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If you have ceramic coated your wheels do you still use a brush to clean them?
I recently had my wheels ceramic coated, will using a brush to clean them wear down the ceramic prematurely?
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07-13-2023, 09:36 AM | #2 |
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Any mechanical abrasion technically will. I wouldn't worry though... if your brush is that abrasive then you have your clear to worry about more than the coating. Ceramic coatings on wheels are not really that helpful IMO. You still need to agitate or use strong chemicals which attack the coating anyway.
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07-13-2023, 09:39 AM | #3 | |
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07-13-2023, 10:19 AM | #4 |
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I used Adam’s UV Ceramic Wheel Coating - supposedly providing a 9H hardness. A MF towel with the same car wash for the paint & water stream is all I need to clean the wheels, doing it monthly.
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07-13-2023, 10:46 AM | #5 |
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Depends. A HP rinse with pressure washer is noticeably cleaner with coated wheels than without.
Regardless, depending if it's see road driver water, you still need to do some level of mechanical agitation to remove the -film- that will exist on the wheel after a HP rinse. Depends how picky your are....a HP will get it clean, but it will leave a film on it ... |
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07-13-2023, 10:56 AM | #6 |
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I'd love to help you out, but my wheels never get dirty enough to use a brush.
Back when I had iron brakes I would blow the wheels off with a leaf blower after every drive, and that worked very well to keep the dust from accumulating. Now that I have CCB's the brake dust just isn't there to begin with, but it sucks that I can no longer blow them off. Before and after rear by Andrew Thompson, on Flickr |
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07-13-2023, 10:56 AM | #7 |
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No. I hit them with an Iron X type product (Meg's ultimate wheel cleaner or Griot's fallout remover), let it cling/dwell till well purple, then blast it off and they're 99% clean. Then I blow dry, so no touching. Stock brakes, lots of dust as I don't drive it easy, but wash it weekly, so not too much build up. The dust falls down and collects at the bottom of the wheel when stopped, that's how poorly the dust sticks to the coated wheels.
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07-13-2023, 11:03 AM | #8 |
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When I had my wheels coated, soap and water was all I needed. I would not brush them. Ceramic can scratch and its scratch is much harder to buff out than a normal clear coat scratch.
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07-13-2023, 11:44 AM | #9 |
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I've used Adams wheel cleaner to let if sit
Slight agitation with the big wooly sponge 99% clean Than blender with my mighty vac |
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07-13-2023, 01:08 PM | #10 |
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My entire exteriour is ceramic coated. Paint, glass, trim & wheels. If I had to choose only ONE component, it would be the wheels. Makes cleaning them SO much easier……… Frank
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07-13-2023, 01:18 PM | #11 |
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This is my process too. I will take the wheels off at least once a month for a deep clean with a wheel decontaminate and then I will use a ceramic booster on the wheels before they go back on the car.
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07-13-2023, 01:32 PM | #12 | |
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07-13-2023, 01:33 PM | #13 | |
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07-13-2023, 01:34 PM | #14 |
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I don't think the iron remover itself, typically ammonium thioglycolate, harms the coating much if at all. The question is, if you are using a wheel cleaner instead of just plain IronX, what else is in it and how acidic or alkaline is it?
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07-13-2023, 01:48 PM | #16 |
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I use a pressure washer only, then once in a while follow up with a wet microfiber. No soap of any kind. A bit laborious, but you gotta love that German brake dust.
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07-13-2023, 01:50 PM | #17 |
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I use a pressure washer only, then once in a while follow up with a wet microfiber. no soap of any kind. A bit laborious, but you gotta love that German brake dust.
///MPhatic's got the real, if expensive, answer: CCBs.
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07-13-2023, 02:08 PM | #18 |
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I'm lucky enough to live within a mile of a car wash, so I just use the car wash soap, rinse, drive it home, wipe everything off with a damp terrycloth towel and done.
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07-13-2023, 03:19 PM | #20 |
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Brake buster is highly alkaline, it will degrade the coating with repeated use. Every once in a while is fine, but actually a mild acid is probably more friendly to the coatings than some of the alkaline wheel cleaners.
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07-13-2023, 03:21 PM | #21 |
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It really depends. There are a lot of solvents that are neutral that would dissolve the coating resin. There is way too much made of pH in the detailing world, 7 does not mean it's safe.
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07-13-2023, 04:11 PM | #22 | ||
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Like other coatings, it has good chemical resistance; a spread of like 2-12 ph. Iron decon sprays don't damage the coating, they enhance it be removing fallout - you'll see better water behavior return after application/rinse. I use iron remover (Griot's right now, I have nano skin, Megs, used to have Adams, all very similar) on my paint and wheels. I don't apply it to the whole car every wash (weekly), but I do hit the fenders right around the wheels where there's likely to be more brake dust, and bumper above exhaust. Then every so often, I'll spray the whole car. It's not cheap, but you can buy a gallon of iron remover and you'll fare better than buying a 16oz bottle every month.
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