Do you hate dirty wheels as much as we do? Wheels that are grimy from brake dust and road dirt can make even a clean vehicle look like a clunker. We decided to write up a short tutorial of our wheel and tire wash process to really deep clean the filthiest wheel so it turns out spotless. Below is a picture of the wheel of an Audi A4 that received a full exterior/interior detail from us.
Pretty nasty!
Here are the steps to our process:
1. Wet wheel/tire with water (We use triple deionized filtered water for a spot-free rinse).
2. Spray tire with tire cleaner (We prefer Westley's Bleach White).
3. Scrub tire ONLY with tire brush to loosen dirt and previous tire shine if applied.
4. Spray Wheel with wheel cleaner. In most cases we use Meguiar's Wheel Brightener diluted 4 parts water to 1 part product.
**NOTE** Meguiar's Wheel Brightener is safe on most factory and clear-coated wheels ONLY. Attempting to use this product on a bare aluminum/aluminum alloy wheel can result in marring to the point of permanent damage or where the wheels will have to be multistage polished back to their original state.
5. Use a boar's hair pastry brush to clean face of wheels (spokes/anything facing you, including the lip of the wheel).
6. We use SM Arnold's professional wheel brushes, both the large and small depending on the type of wheel to get in the wheel drum or split spoke wheels and also for caliper cleaning.
7. Rinse wheel and tire with water and dry wheel with a clean microfiber towel/compressed air.
Using these steps, the wheel in the picture prior turned out to be beautiful after all, minus a little curb rash!
;)