*** The Car Cleaning Thread ***

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What's the wheel cleaner of choice at the moment?

Bilberry and Wonder Wheels wouldn't touch brake dust deposits on my wheels. I had to remove them from the car and clay bar them.
 
Bilberry, used neat, has never failed to move anything from my wheels.

Having said that, none of the wheels I've used it on have been more than 3 months old, and never uber-heavily soiled.

I'd imagine that Iron-X/TriX will remove the baked on brake residue from the wheels if left for long enough to penetrate and lift the deposits. Maybe requiring more than one application.

That was the method I used on the GF's 12 year old Lupo's wheels, and it didn't fail.

Obviously once you've gone through the effort of getting the wheels spotless again, seal them and keep on top of the cleaning! It's easier to keep something clean than to make something filthy be clean again ;)
 
I have streaks of brake dust on my front wheels I'm literally unable to get off, wonder wheels won't get it all off, WD40(yep, tried that), even Gunk didn't have a chance.

Can you clay your alloys? is it effective?
 
You can clay your alloys (I did the set on my old e36), and it can be quite effective, but a) more time consuming, and b) far less energy efficient than doing it with a dedicated contaminant remover like TriX.

Another good one is petrol, but petrol is pretty expensive these days :p
 
What sealant would you recommend?

I had my wheels fully refurbished at Lepsons around a year ago so they're still immaculate.
 
Generally I use whatever sealant/Wax I'm using on the rest of the car or wheels too. If you're asking for what sealant/wax to buy then there's a ridiculous amount of options. I'm currently using natty blue paste wax which is fine but does not last long enough for me and generally doesn't last long on wheels at all. I have tried the spray on autoglym stuff and that wasn't up to much so I'd give that a swerve. I'm toying with switching to the gtechniq range or wolfs chemicals hard body sealant for my body work and will probably whack that on my wheels too. Seems expensive but the reviews all seem to be pretty good for them both.
 
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I was going to say the same, I can't see poorboys being any better than colonite.

Was going to do a big clean today but have dropped my car off for a front bumper respray instead.
 
Typically you want a harder wearing (and therefore less focussed on "gloss") sealant on wheels. I'd rather go for a synthetic over a natural wax, and actually have had good results with Autoglym's Extra Gloss Protection.

It's not quite as good as the dedicated wheel products (other than Autoglym Wheel Seal, which is tosh), but it's relatively cheap, and usually available on the high-street.
 
skippy2421 said:
Generally I use whatever sealant/Wax I'm using on the rest of the car or wheels too. If you're asking for what sealant/wax to buy then there's a ridiculous amount of options. I'm currently using natty blue paste wax which is fine but does not last long enough for me and generally doesn't last long on wheels at all. I have tried the spray on autoglym stuff and that wasn't up to much so I'd give that a swerve. I'm toying with switching to the gtechniq range or wolfs chemicals hard body sealant for my body work and will probably whack that on my wheels too. Seems expensive but the reviews all seem to be pretty good for them both.
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I haven't used gtechniq sealants but can recommend wolf chemicals though wouldn't call it expensive. It doesn't seem like much liquid but use very little on each application and also lasts so much longer.

I use nattys wheel sealant but tried WC's rim shield on my spares (I have 2 full size spares.) Put it on about 8/9 months ago with the wheel going on the car about 6/7 months ago (~1000 miles a month covered in that time.) I use Valetpro citrus pre wash @ 10:1 on the car, spray the wheel too and pressure wash off and the wheel still comes up as clean as day 1. I don't know how much longer it will last but way out performing PB wheel sealant and got some time off soon so plan on doing all my wheels with it :)
 
going to buy a da next week. the megs 105,205/hex loic deal on cyc. it comes with 1 white and 1 orange. Do I need to double up on the pads?
 
Best interior cleaner? Picked up some dash wipes from Asda on the cheap was amazed how dirty my dash was looking for something more intense to really clean through
 
For what car? If it's the E46 then Poorboy's Natural Look Dressing to give that original matte lustre or Simoniz Matte Dash spray for a similar (just less lustre) finish.

Poorboy's lasts longer and has multiple uses around car and home.
 
Yea I bought some Matte dash wipes which seemed to have removed a fair bit of grime, pretty nasty considering I'm touching it all!
 
A damp cloth would have gotten the grime off just as good, the idea is to apply the dressing after wiping grime away with /whatever/. Damp cloth works best anyway as it leaves no residue/stuff - From my experience anyway.
 
Ah right well these were only 1.50 just needed something quick as I'd been working on the car a lot some of the dash was grimey
 
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