Those of us who were lucky enough to buy our trucks brand new off the lot may remember how awesome the paint on the wheels looked for the first few thousand miles. After that, it seems the brake dust and road grime seems to build up with more of a vengance- at least it seemed like that to me... so for some time now I have been meaning to pull all the wheels off and surgically clean them and put something on them to help prevent this. Here is what worked for me, hope it will help out anyone considering the same task.
At this point my XR had 6400 miles on it, but the wheels didnt really have the same "pop" they did brand new off the lot. Even a good cleaning of all accessible nooks and crannies would only stay clean a few days or a few hundred miles.
The plan was to put something on them to help keep them looking good and staying clean- "WheelWax" is what I bought for the job. Just like waxing the rest of your truck, you need to make sure the paint is CLEAN before waxing- otherwise you risk sealing grime under the wax and your wheels will never look clean. See other than nasty brake dust, stuff like road tar, oil, mud, clay, all this can build up on your spinning wheels as you go down the road and get stuck on there really hard, more so than the bug you smack with your huge mirror going 75 on the highway. Also, the spare has a rough life as well, hanging inverted under the bed, never getting any attention.. so I removed it too and gave it the same treatment as the other 4.
I had just done a quick cleanup of my wheels when washing the car two days prior to this project, and you can see how dingy they looked.
So, to begin, remove wheel(s) and begin cleaning. I used a couple of floor jacks to raise the front and removed both of those wheels, then dropped the spare so I could get 3 done in the first batch. Second batch (rear wheels) done in a similar manner.
I did all the cleaning on my driveway, with a regular water hose, my regular wheel cleaning brushes, and two cleaners. A generic (but good) wheel & tire cleaner for the first cleaning, then undiluted Simple Green for the final cleaning. The terrycloth rag worked great in the little area that the brushes will miss to ensure the wheels were as clean as humanly possible.
After cleaning as many times until you see no more grime, front or rear, and a very good rinse front and back, dry them off and if your wife is at work, roll them into the living room. :top: I put down a dropcloth so as not to leave any wax residue or tiremarks on her precious area rug and by the time she got home all that remained in the room was the smell of carnuba. Hey, it was 95 degrees outside, and my backyard is humid like a rainforest, no way I could do a good job outdoors. Usually I do this kinda work in my air conditioned garage, but the X is so long I couldnt shut the door and still have room to get around it.
The WheelWax is EASY to use, in fact so easy that you can apply 2-3 light coats of it by hand to both sides of the wheel in about 20 minutes time. I used a 8x8 piece of terrycloth and got it loaded up with the wax until it was basically saturated. This made it much easier to develop a consistant method of waxing each wheel, not missing any spots, and not applying too much or too little wax. They reccomend two coats for front wheels, I think I put 3 coats on every wheel.
End results:
The biggest difference is to see them in person now on the truck. They look so much cleaner and it really pops now. Trouble is, it is tough to catch that on camera.
This guy's flash really helped pick the wheels up, metallic and all:
http://www.wheelwax.com/
Any questions?
At this point my XR had 6400 miles on it, but the wheels didnt really have the same "pop" they did brand new off the lot. Even a good cleaning of all accessible nooks and crannies would only stay clean a few days or a few hundred miles.
The plan was to put something on them to help keep them looking good and staying clean- "WheelWax" is what I bought for the job. Just like waxing the rest of your truck, you need to make sure the paint is CLEAN before waxing- otherwise you risk sealing grime under the wax and your wheels will never look clean. See other than nasty brake dust, stuff like road tar, oil, mud, clay, all this can build up on your spinning wheels as you go down the road and get stuck on there really hard, more so than the bug you smack with your huge mirror going 75 on the highway. Also, the spare has a rough life as well, hanging inverted under the bed, never getting any attention.. so I removed it too and gave it the same treatment as the other 4.
I had just done a quick cleanup of my wheels when washing the car two days prior to this project, and you can see how dingy they looked.
So, to begin, remove wheel(s) and begin cleaning. I used a couple of floor jacks to raise the front and removed both of those wheels, then dropped the spare so I could get 3 done in the first batch. Second batch (rear wheels) done in a similar manner.
I did all the cleaning on my driveway, with a regular water hose, my regular wheel cleaning brushes, and two cleaners. A generic (but good) wheel & tire cleaner for the first cleaning, then undiluted Simple Green for the final cleaning. The terrycloth rag worked great in the little area that the brushes will miss to ensure the wheels were as clean as humanly possible.
After cleaning as many times until you see no more grime, front or rear, and a very good rinse front and back, dry them off and if your wife is at work, roll them into the living room. :top: I put down a dropcloth so as not to leave any wax residue or tiremarks on her precious area rug and by the time she got home all that remained in the room was the smell of carnuba. Hey, it was 95 degrees outside, and my backyard is humid like a rainforest, no way I could do a good job outdoors. Usually I do this kinda work in my air conditioned garage, but the X is so long I couldnt shut the door and still have room to get around it.
The WheelWax is EASY to use, in fact so easy that you can apply 2-3 light coats of it by hand to both sides of the wheel in about 20 minutes time. I used a 8x8 piece of terrycloth and got it loaded up with the wax until it was basically saturated. This made it much easier to develop a consistant method of waxing each wheel, not missing any spots, and not applying too much or too little wax. They reccomend two coats for front wheels, I think I put 3 coats on every wheel.
End results:
The biggest difference is to see them in person now on the truck. They look so much cleaner and it really pops now. Trouble is, it is tough to catch that on camera.
This guy's flash really helped pick the wheels up, metallic and all:
http://www.wheelwax.com/
Any questions?
