Wheel Cleaners

Below are the typical type of wheel cleaners you may find and a quick description of their uses.

Strong Acid based - These are extremely strong cleaners generally consisting of hydrofluoric acid or ammonium bifluoride.  They smell terrible and are very dangerous to your vehicle and person.  These should only be used by professionals on particular wheel types and need to be neutralized.

Mild Acid based - These are often found OTC.  They contain phosphoric or oxalic acid.  They are much safer for wheel finishes and slightly safer for humans.  They will generally require some agitation and may take multiple applications.

Alkaline based - These are similar to most all purposes cleaners.  They often contain potassium hydroxide, sodium hydroxide or sodium metasilicate.  These are also very strong and can be very dangerous to wheels and humans.  Look for products containing sodium metasilicate rather than the hydroxides; it is just as effective and much less dangerous.

Surfactant/detergent based - These are often similar to car wash soap and are very mild, safe for all wheel types and humans.  They are not very strong and will require agitation.  This is often the best choice when dealing with aftermarket wheels and specialty brake systems like carbon ceramics.  These tend to be pH neutral or close to and contain things like ethoxylated alcohol or sodium laurel sulfate.  These are the safest wheel cleaners.

Iron targeting cleaners - There are a number of these on the market now.  They are based on mercaptoacetates and have a charactaristicly bad smell.  They are also color changing, as they react with iron particles they change to a dark purple color.  These are pH neutral and are generally considered the safest wheel cleaners along with detergents.

Detailing Workshop

We recently held a detailing workshop to teach enthusiasts about proper washing techniques and basic paint correction.  Students were able to try a variety of tools and equipment used by professional detailers, get a hands-on learning experience of removing defects from paint and received personalized instruction on improving their technique.  Thanks to Tipcke Services for hosting the event and providing the vehicle.

Photo courtesy of Tom Lau

Basic Wash Techniques

While many people are concerned with the swirls and scratches in their vehicle, little thought is put toward how they got there.  The majority of swirls are considered wash-induced, that is, the act of keeping your car looking good is actually causing damage.  This damage is a result of poor wash techniques, of which the following are most common:

• Using dirty water
• Using dirty wash media
• Lack of adequate lubrication on the paint
• Poor quality wash media or drying media
• Washing panels in the wrong order

Nobody is a perfect car washer and even if you were, by the time you got done washing, a speck of something has landed on the part of the car where you started and you are going to pick it up with your drying media.  For this reason, using forced air, blotting or a drying aid are strongly recommended.  

Employing best practices for washing your vehicle will reduce the potential for wash-induced defects.  The suggestions below are a great start to minimizing defects in your paint.

• Use multiple buckets and wash media
• Segregate the dirtiest portions of the car to separate wash media and bucket (wheels and lower panels)
• If you drop it, down-grade it or throw it away
• Wash top-down, from cleanest to dirtiest panels
• Frequently rinse your wash media to remove soiling that's been picked up