This piece will draw attention to a few wheel areas many tend to overlook and that have a negative impact on the finished product. These are a few steps that can be added to your workflow that are not super time consuming. So there’s no good reason not to add them to your quick wash! Despite what the corner car wash would have you believe, wheels take time to get properly and safely cleaned.<\/p>\n
What You Need<\/h3>\n
To clean properly and safely, you\u2019ll need a selection of proper tools that will reach areas that a wash mitt will not. I am a big fan of long bristle vinyl brush like an EZ Detail Brush<\/a>, Wheel Woolies<\/a> of all sizes,\u00a0Boar\u2019s Hair Brushes<\/a>,\u00a0and Microfiber Towels<\/a> that are not of the \u201cboutique\u201d variety for the dirtiest of portions. A fine cleaning chemical (i.e. P21S Gel Wheel Cleaner<\/a>)\u00a0will ease your cleaning and provide a margin of safety that typical wheel acids do not.<\/p>\n For the sake of time, we will not review every step of how to clean a wheel. We are aiming to touch on just the typical misses and how your details will improve by working in those areas.<\/p>\n For most, cleaning the faces of wheels are a breeze and that\u2019s where most wheel cleanings stop. What we need to recognize is that we don\u2019t see just the face of wheels. On modern cars, we can typically see a very large area of the inner dish. I\u2019ve been asked more times than I can count how I get the inner dishes on wheels so clean. The short answer is that having the right tools make the job possible. Wheel woolies and EZ detail brushes provide you with reach and leverage to get those tough to reach areas. Wheel woolies have become my favorite wheel cleaning tool due to it\u2019s long reach, durability and fluffy head. It\u2019s limiting factor is its thickness between some calipers and inner wheel dishes. Where the wheel woolies drop off the EZ detail brush picks up. It\u2019s low-profile is ideal for getting between most calipers and wheel dishes. Its flexible stem allows for you to bend it in a way that you can reach the rear of spokes and around the wheel offset. In some cases you may need to clean all the wheels, roll the car forward a few feet then reclean where you could not reach before on the inner dish. Between spokes is another area that will have missed spots. For between spokes, you can use the smaller wheel woolies, EZ detail brush or a boar\u2019s head brush. I like to use a boar\u2019s hair brush for where spokes meet the wheel dish. Longer brushes do not tend to provide the reach in tight corners that a smaller brush will (no d\u2019uh, right?). The same boar\u2019s hair brush will be able to clean out lug nut recesses that build up over time. Lug nut recesses may need extra attention beyond what your typical cleaning as they have tight gaps and even with the right tools, they may need multiple cleaning passes.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t know anyone who loves to bend over and work in an uncomfortable position. Because of that, many will not get low enough to inspect their work. What will improve your cleaning on wheels is squatting and actually doing just that, inspecting. Now, the highest portion of the wheels will not be lacking.<\/p>\n This is one of those areas that is outright forsaken. They get more hammered than probably any other portion of a car, yet are rarely cleaned.\u00a0Your eyes may not go right to them while appreciating a car, but I guarantee if it’s dirty, it is taking away from the overall appearance.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve purchased your EZ detail brush, have some microfiber towels that are on your bad side (okay, so just some towels that don\u2019t mind throwing away once finished with) and a good all purpose cleaner\/degreaser (like the P21S Total Auto Wash<\/a> or Meguiar\u2019s APC<\/a>), you are all set on getting those bad boys cleaned up. Pre-soak the wheel well with water then spray your APC directly to the wheel well surface. After allowing your APC to sit for a short period of time (dictated by the directions on the bottle), agitate the surface with your EZ detail brush with it bent in a way that it has the most surface contact with the liner. Try your best to keep the bristles of the brush inside the wheel well and off the painted exterior of the fender. This will minimize the chance to generate marring on your paint. In my experience, using a pressure washer for wheel wells is ideal. For instance, if you have a felt wheel well liner, using a water hose on dirty felt is an exercise in futility. Felt grabs up junk and it mingles with the fibers. A pressure washer can clean better than any water hose pressure.<\/p>\n A thorough job may require multiple passes at cleaning any of these surfaces. At times, I have spent a hour on these very surfaces. But just think of it. When you\u2019re done, you will be left with the dirtiest parts of your car cleaned beyond anything it has experienced. You\u2019re giving the surfaces a chance at a long life and you the opportunity to protect them with a variety of products.<\/p>\n It may take a long time but if you\u2019re anything like me. When you\u2019re done, you\u2019ll be able to stand back from your auto detail and take real pride in the beauty you created.<\/p>\n Purchase the products used in this article individually or in one convenient package here<\/a>! <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jean-Claude Corcoran of Detailed Designs Auto Spa highlights some areas that are typically missed when cleaning your wheels and wheel wells. He also goes over what you can use to clean these areas and how you can avoid missing them during future details!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":12707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,44,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rims-and-tires","8":"category-wheel-care","9":"category-wheel-well-care"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/10864329193_3ea6388efd_b.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1kPO7-37q","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11992"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14655,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11992\/revisions\/14655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.detailedimage.com\/Ask-a-Pro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}What Gets Missed<\/h3>\n
Why Are These Issues?<\/h3>\n
![\"www.detaileddesignsautospa.com](\"https:\/\/farm3.staticflickr.com\/2831\/10864038946_a55d5a1c22_b.jpg\")
Get low enough to inspect your work as you go. With some due diligence, the right tools and safe chemicals your wheels will look great, inside and out.<\/em><\/p>\nWheel Wells<\/h3>\n
![\"www.detaileddesignsautospa.com](\"https:\/\/farm4.staticflickr.com\/3701\/10864034446_7a33d6778f_b.jpg\")
EZ Detail Brush makes cleaning a breeze.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"www.detaileddesignsautospa.com](\"https:\/\/farm6.staticflickr.com\/5535\/10864329193_3ea6388efd_b.jpg\")
Pressure washers provide excellent cleaning ability.<\/em><\/p>\nFinally, You’re Done!<\/h3>\n
Buy Products From This Article<\/h2>\n
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