Ever wondered how to properly clean your alloy wheels like a detailer? Our Detailing Guide will tell you exactly what to use to clean your wheels.
What you'll need to clean your allow wheels:
- A dedicated Alloy Wheel Cleaner
- A Detailing Bucket & Grit Guard with Car Shampoo
- Alloy Wheel Brush, detailing brushes & Wheel Mitts
- Tyre Cleaning Brush & Tyre Cleaner
- Drying Towel or Car Blow Dryer
- Tyre Dressing & Dressing Applicator
Step 1 - Pre Rinse Your Alloy Wheels
Before you wash your alloy wheels its best to remove the thick dirt and debris by giving them a thorough rinse down with a pressure washer. This will remove at least 50% of the built up dirt and grime from the brake pads, making contact cleaning easier.
Step 2 - Applying your Alloy Wheel Cleaner Correctly
After you've rinsed down the wheels you'll need to grab yourself an Alloy Wheel Cleaner, we love Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel. Spray this products liberally onto the face, barrels and spokes of the wheels and allow the chemical to dwell for at east 2-3 minutes. Make sure you allow them to dwell to let the chemical do the hard work, always work on one wheel at a time and don't let the product dry out.
Step 3 - Cleaning your Alloy Wheels
Start off with the barrels of the allow wheels by using an alloy wheel brush, we love the Big EZ Detailing Brush for this. Dip your alloy wheel brush into a bucket filled with car shampoo and start at the top and work in a clockwise motion until you've cleaned the entire barrel. Next grab yourself a detailing brush to clean the intricate areas like the lug nuts and spokes, we love the Bilt Hamber Wheel Brush. Finally, use a microfibre towel or alloy wheel mitt to clean the surface of the wheel (TOP TIP: Use an old wash mitt that you used on the paintwork, always recycle your detailing products!)
Step 4 - Cleaning your Tyres
Grab yourself a tyre cleaner and liberally apply this to the walls of the tyres, we love Gyeon Q2M Tire Cleaner or Stjarnagloss Forst. Allow the product to dwell for 1-2 minutes before scrubbing the walls with a tyre cleaning brush. After this you want to rinse down the entire wheel and tyre section and re-apply a small amount of tyre cleaner. If the tyre cleaner foams up as a white foam then the tyres are clean but if the tyres foam up orange/brown then repeat the above step.
Step 5 - Rinsing and Drying your Alloy Wheels
Once you've rinsed away all the chemical from your alloy wheels you'll need to dry them using a microfibre drying towel or car blow dryer. Drying your alloy wheels can sometimes be a pain but using a blow dryer is the most efficient way of removing all excess water from your cars wheels. We love the mammoth mini microfibre drying towel for the alloy wheels due to its size but if you're lucky enough to own a blow dryer, the BLO AIR-S is the easiest option.
Step 6 - Dressing your Tyres Correctly
Once your wheels and tyres are dry its time to finish off the wheels. If you love glossy tyres then look no further than Meguiars Endurance Tyre Gel but for the Satin finish lovers out there then it has to be Gyeon Q2M Tire Express. Pump out a couple of squirts onto a tyre applicator before running it around the tyre wall trying to keep to an even coverage throughout. Once the tyre dressing is applied leave it to dwell for at least 30 minutes before wiping off any excess with a microfibre towel, this will reduce sling down the side of your car.
And that's it! By following this step by step guide you should now have a perfectly clean set of wheels and tyres! If you do have any questions regarding any of the process, or products to use then be sure to drop us a message, call or pop in store and one of our team will be happy to help!
