wheel and wheel well cleaning, with wheels off the car

one of the real wacko processes is cleaning the wheels off of the car...
and a topic that i get questions about very often- questions are how the process goes, and how long it takes...

so, the process:
(and i can add that the entire process for cleaning the wheels and wheel wells, including gathering the products, taking the wheels off and putting them back on and putting everything away, is about 3 to 4 hours)

first step is to gather the materials-




next, jack up the car- either using a trolley jack or the honda jack. in this process, i used both. my car is lowered, so i use the honda jack to get it up high enough to get the trolley jack under the car. i do not jack the car all the way up, but just enough to loosen the nuts- get them all loose and then jack it up the rest of the way. remove the first wheel- be careful not to drop it and set it down on a carpet or, as i did in this case, on the hose to protect it from scratches.

the jacking points for our cars are shown here:
http://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?act=m...d=si&img=146867

i then detail the wheel well- first rinse, then several choices of cleaners- if the wells are fairly clean, you can just use a wheel brush and car shampoo... if a bit dirtier, then i use a non-acid wheel cleaner, general purpose cleaner or brakekleen depending on what the grime seems to be. around the brakes, brakekleen does well, and a non-acid based wheel cleaner can be helpful. use brushes to clean all parts, then rinse. i used a stainless cleaner on the exhaust, and then buffed it out. dry the well as much as possible (leaf blowers are good if you are careful). i used 303 on the rubber and vinyl parts this time- and finished with a "cavity wax" (aerosol sprayed on).
cleaning in process:


next, the wheels-
i used sonus non-acid cleaners - rinsed the wheels and sprayed the interior with the wheel cleaner. let it sit couple of minutes



brush well, and reclean if needed. rinse and carefully turn the wheel over and do the outside. rinse and turn over a couple times to let the water drain. you can also use the leaf blower if you like. dry the wheel well.
then wax- i usually use wheel wax or finish first (a synthetic). let cure and buff it- i do the interior first then finish up the exterior.
finally, treat the rubber. i had some old meg endurance that i wanted to use up- i dont mind using it when the wheel has to cure- while its curing the megs will set-up nicely. some guys dont like the shine- but on fresh wheels with such a small amount of rubber, i dont mind... endurance is not usually my rubber product of choice, but it looks good here




and my assistant posed for this one


put the wheel back on the car, make sure its on tight, and lower the car-
go to the next wheel and repeat the process!




the last step is to carefully take the car for a drive- i test the brakes several times to make sure that all product is off of the rotors and brake parts... and love the comments that i get how my car looks brand new.
only problem- it doesnt look brand new... it looks better than new!!

Nice writeup Wannabe. One thing I don't pay attention to is the inside of the wheelwell. I think i'll give this a try.

Any suggestions for cleaning the flat black finish on Spoon SW388 wheels?

Great write up wanabe. What brushes are you using? Im still trying to decide on a good wheelbrush. Im thinking about picking up a boars hair from autogeek.

thx s2000patrick- your wheels are clearcoated, so the cleaning methods should be the same for all parts...
how dirty are they? just normal dust and dirt, or something more? if more, can you describe it?
i stay away from acid based wheel cleaners cause of the clearcoat-
the exteriors of mine just required car shampoo, but the interiors i used two sonus non-acid cleaners (either would have worked- and they prob only sell one now anyway!)
p21s makes a couple of wheel cleaners- one for normal cleaning and one a bit more aggressive. those would be good choices for your wheels too.

http://www.detailersdomain.com/index.asp?P...WPROD&ProdID=30

hey thx yzer- used mainly two wheel brushes...
similar to the ones here:

http://properautocare.com/brushes.html

i used a spoke (or small opening) brush and a long handled brush that has the same head as the wheel brush on the above site. i like the long handled version cause it is easier to use on the wheel wells, axles, etc.
here are a coupla good brushes:

http://www.superiorcarcare.net/wheelbrushes.html

If you lay your wheels down on their face to clean the backside, and you have OEM wheels or wheels where the face of the wheel extends beyond the tire sidewall, then make sure you lay some carpet down or do something else to prevent the wheel face from being scratched. Don't ask me how I know this.

Somebody should event a wheel holder so that the backside of wheels can be cleaned without the chance of scratching the wheel face. Maybe elevate the wheel a foot or two so that the wheel can be cleaned while sitting on one of those low wheeled shop stools.

i have had the same experience (on other wheels)!!

i use a carpet when i take them off of the car, but when i am working them i just wind the hose up (water on with good pressure build up) for a cushion (like the middle of the hose)... and you do have to be careful not to let the wheel touch the ground under the hose-
with the ssrs, as you can see from my pics above, i can just use one layer of hose to protect the wheel.

I use a 33 gallon Rubbermaid trash can for a wheel stand. Nice working height and the curved cover turned upside down never touches the face of the wheel.

Great tip! I usually use a piece of cardboard, but this is a great idea.

This is a great write up!! I really enjoyed reading it.

wanabe - what rotors are you using? They look great - no rust at all - did you paint them or treat them in some way to avoid rust?

thanks mikey c!

harpoon- those are drilled and slotted cad plated from spugen... about two years old now and i can not seem to be able to get them back to the really new look- when new they were all silver- now they are a bit off silver. have not painted them, just cleaned them.

this should be where i got them:
http://www.teamspugen.com/product_info.php...&products_id=72

Excellent writeup!

I learn so much here.


So how much does your assistant help?

My cat is more of a supervisor. He watches every job I do inside the house as if he's gonna tell me what I screwed up. And when I'm in the garage he'll sit on top of the refrigerator such that he can look out through the window in the door from the kitchen and see what I'm up to.

Don't forget the jack stands!

yup- assistants are very important in the detailing process!!
i asked mine to bring over the trolley jack for that photo, and you can see he brought his bone instead- good help is so hard to find!!
he does chase squirrels and so he keeps me safe from them while i am under the car!

interesting... i do the wheels one at a time and dont even raise the entire front or rear- when i change the oil i put the car on jack stands (to make it level), but for taking the wheels off one at a time, i only raise one wheel at a time.
probably faster to put the car up on jack stands and just do all 4 at once. i feel safer tightening the wheels with only one off at a time. i raise the car part way and with the wheel still on the ground loosen the lugs, then jack it up to take it off.
do you loosen or tighten the wheels first and then put it on stands?

I raise the car slightly to take the weight off the studs when I loosen lug nuts, then raise the tire off the ground to complete the job.

I'm more worried about the jack failing while your hands/head are in the wheel well detailing it. Do you sit on the ground with your feet under the car when you are doing this?

good point!
actually i have two jacks under the car for each wheel... use the honda jack to get the car high enough to get the trolley jack under. i raise it with the trolley, take out the honda jack and manually lift the honda jack (turn by hand) a bit higher. a jack stand would prob be a better choice as a "spotter".
i am never really under the car. i sit on the creeper, and reach in with a long handled brush- except when i am doing the exhaust. i do reach under to get the exhaust. i think that my biggest potential risk would be if both jacks failed and the car did fall, it would damage the car.
but your points are well taken and i agree that it is a good idea to include the potential risks!

Sure is nice to have a couple of sets of wheels. I wash street tires & wheels when the race tires are on the car and wash race wheels when I am about to have new tires mounted.

For jacking, I use a floor jack and a block that I made to keep from bending the lip on the side sills. Jacking point is about even with the mirrors. That picks up both wheels on that side of car. I loosen lug nuts about 1/2 turn with tires touching concrete and then jack up the car and remove nuts with battery drill motor. I do not use rattle wrench because I do not like the way it beats over the corners of the lug nuts.

Nuts get put back on by hand about three threads to make sure that they are not cross threaded and then tightened with drill motor. Then let car down until tires touch concrete. When tires touch the concrete, I use a torque wrench to finish tightening them. I do not drop car completely until nuts have been torqued.

thanks panterakitty- i need to use a torque wrench...
too lazy, but you got me thinking that i should go check the torque. (i hand tighten them, then take the car for a drive and retighten them).
do you recall what you torque the wheels to?

Damn!! You made me go out and look at the Owner's Manual!!! It is 80 ft/lb. Just what I have been using. I think that is pretty much standard for 12mm studs.

o.k.- got a question that you dont need to look up!

just got a message from a member suggesting that one process that i forgot was to check the air in the tire as long as i was working on it... my recollection is that the tire air should be checked only with the weight of the car on the wheel- so i do not check it with the tire off of the car, but wait until i have the wheels back on-

does it matter??

I usually over fill tires on the bench in the basement and then adjust pressure at the event. Weight of the car doesn't matter. Temperature does. I have seen pressure on one side of the car rise 2 or 3 PSI just from the sun shining on them for a couple of hours. We usually bleed off 2 - 3 PSI after each run because of the temperature/pressure increase. I think rule of thumb is you gain 2 PSI for each 10°F rise in temperature. Once all the moisture in the tire is vaporized the temperature will remain constant. This is why real racers use dry nitrogen to fill their tires.

Street pressures should be set with tires cold. If you dont have an air compressor at home, I would over inflate them by about 5 - 8 PSI, drive home and let them down to the desired pressure in the morning.

very interesting... thanks for your input-
so it sounds like if the tires are cool during the detail process, you could air them to the correct temp then put them back on the car as the message to me suggested-

I don't mess with tire pressures during the detail process with the wheels off ... but I do check the tires closely at this time for damage or nails and screws that may have been picked up.

Since the handling of this car is so dependent on correct tire pressure, I check the oil and the tire pressure once a week ... cold.

I have more than once found one of the tires a little "off" and upon further inspection, found a nail or screw that I had picked up.

Cheap insurance to avoid problems on the road ... especially before a road trip.

Just my 2 cents ...

good points e white!
i do the same... roll the tires from the car to the carpet and inspect as she rolls- found a nice knick in one this time, but concluded that it wasnt bad enough to be a problem- soft tires do seem to pick up stuff more than harder ones.