Cleaning Painted Wheels....

[KitsonRis]

With warm water obviously!! But as I had a reckless moment I painted my wheels bright orange (and love them!) but they don't half get dirty, especially the fronts from the brake dust. As they were painted professionally (by me with aerosol cans in my garden!) I am sure they are prone to wearing out, although I did lacquer them. They are just fading, especially in the corners where it was really hard to get paint into without causing runs on the front faces of the spokes, and also hard to clean. Does anyone use like a wheel cleaner on their painted wheels? I know they can be quite harsh on paint work.

The wheels will be powder coated in the near future as I cannot get enough of the colour!

 

[aucky]

May as well wait until you get them professionally power coated and then seal them with C5. Before that, it sounds like you'll be fighting a loosing battle.

 

[Rob]

Generally speaking, if you left the lacquer to cure for long enough, using a wheel cleaner should be fine.

It does depend upon the quality of the paint job.

 

[LiamR172]

Mine were never right when I painted them myself. I think the paint and lacquer was too thin and the brake dust just baked right onto the paint.

Get them done properly and seal them, cleaning is so much easier when the wheels are sealed

 

[Auto Finesse]

If you've lacquered them after the colour any acid free wheel cleaner will help keep them clean.

Once you've cleaned them it maybe worth waxing them with a wheel wax such as Mint Rims to make sure they stay cleaner for longer. Heres a link to our Wheel cleaner and Wheel wax for you:

http://shop.autofinesse.co.uk/imperial-500ml

http://shop.autofinesse.co.uk/mint-rims-100ml

Both of these products would be useable on powder coated wheels also!


Joe

 

[KitsonRis]

Wheels were left to stand for a few days after the lacquer was put on, paint was also put on quite thick (more than a tin of aerosol per wheel), but it was the bits where it was hard to get the paint which is the areas I am concerned about.

If the general consensus is it will be ok if they are laqured then I will use a wheel cleaner. If it goes wrong then it is an excuse to powder coat them! haha!

Once done I will seal them like a boss.

 

[Auto Finesse]

Wheels were left to stand for a few days after the lacquer was put on, paint was also put on quite thick (more than a tin of aerosol per wheel), but it was the bits where it was hard to get the paint which is the areas I am concerned about.

If the general consensus is it will be ok if they are laqured then I will use a wheel cleaner. If it goes wrong then it is an excuse to powder coat them! haha!

Once done I will seal them like a boss.

With Mint Rims

http://shop.autofinesse.co.uk/mint-rims-100ml

 

[Addicted]

I'd put C5 on them, I had them on my Clio wheels and it lasted for over 2 years, not only did they look good but it made cleaning them piss easy!

It's all in the prep though, so expect to put a good few hours into cleaning the surface fully before applying.