Cleaning your wheels
 

Cleaning the Carrera 5 spokes is easy but the open design shows off a dirty wheel barrel a little too much for me. A clean barell makes the wheels look 100x better/newer. I like to have a nice clean wheel face, wheel barrel and caliper.

After asking around I've come across this tool from Griots
http://www.griotsgarage.com/catalog.jsp?L1=L1_1000&L2=L2_1002&SKU=15220
http://www.griotsgarage.com/images/p...g/15220_LG.jpg

and have been told that this wheel cleaner from Meguiar's will strip you wheel CLEAN. (will probably work well on the chains of my 3 different bicycles too).
http://detailcity.com/meguiars-detailer-wheel-brightener-gallon.html
http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c..._1896_16779405

I've used Meguiars Professional Wheel Cleaner on my Polished Aluminum/Black interior rims.....it works ok.

I just picked up some FX from Mothers which kicks ass...way better than the Meguiars stuff.

did you use the Meguiar's wheel brightener? I know Meg's (whose products i NEVER buy, well except the gold class brushes) have more than one wheel cleaner.
If you have I'll have to try the FX.
This Meg's WB is said to be able to strip the gunk out of lug nuts holes effortlessly. That's what I'm looking for, minimal effort so that it will encougarme me to do it more often.

The brush from Griots is cool because it slides vs. a standard wheel brush that always misses spots and can't fit between the caliper and wheel so well.

Here's the stuff, I've been using for about 4 years now:

http://www.meguiars.com/?pro-wheel-care/Hi-Tech-Wheel-Cleaner

Does the wheel brightener need to be diluted?

That tool looks cool....I'll try to find one at my local Auto Detailing store. I'll also pick up a sample of the MG Wheel Brightener to compare with the FX.

KRZ

I use the same Blue Coral car whash I use on the car, at a higher concentration, and a cotton cloth. I don't use any wheel cleaners any more.

no the stuff you use if from Meg's mirror glaze line
the Meg's WB is from the detail line which is mail order only.
Comes in that gallon size so I imagine its intended for professioal use only, and concentrated.
The brush is popular but I've never seen anything like it over the counter.
Griots are known for their tools and accessories. I might give their spayer a shot for my FK 146 and 425

Thanks for posting this, Perfectlap. I've been looking for a brush like that. Ordering now. I have been using one of those OXO soft brushes that I originally bought for the ragtop to clean the lug nuts and gunk around the center caps, which seems to work all right for that limited purpose.

Those OXO brushes are great. I have one for side skirting and underneath the rear bumper. i use one just on the top only.
The Meguiar's Gold Class wheel face brush is very good too. I've gotten my money back on that one a million times. I switched the handles from the tire brush and put the short one on the wheel brush.

Using Optimum No-Rinse in a rinse water bucket also makes cleaning the wheels easier since you don't have to get out the hose. I may pick up a pesticide sprayer from lowes and use that to re-re-use the rinse water for spraying down the barrel.

Sealing the barrel with Michelin Brake dust repellent or FK FX100 helps cut down on the brake dust from bonding with the paint finish in the barrel.

Oh and oddly enough I sprayed Meg's NXT glass in there when I was out of FK 146 quick detailer and it worked really well! All of the brake dust just coagulated into one jelly like glob which wiped right off. But soooooo dirty. I'm tihking of keeping box of surgical gloves in the car for wheel cleaning/washing.

I use simple green and a spounge.. it cleans like new. :cheers:

i think perfectlap should open a detail shop.