P21S Multi-Surface Finish Restorer & My Wheels

Brewzer · 03-17-03, 05:10

Hello all,

I'm relatively new to the finer points of detailing. I searched this forum to find out how to clean up my 6 month old Boyd Coddington Smoothie II wheels after an unusually hard winter here in Pennsylvania

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After reading all the recommendations, I bought the following items and thus far have the following results and questions:

P21S Wheel Cleaner Gel -- tired this, after two hours+ of soaking and scrubbing the gel, it hardly made a difference in the wheels.
P21S Multi-Surface Finish Restorer (MSFR) - Received this item and it was separated, that it to say it was very watery, like it was old or frozen, or something. That brings me to my first question. Is this product normally watery like that, or is this tube defective? I tried using this product and with some "extreme elbow grease" this product starts to remove all the crude and bring back the original finish. I just wonder if it would work better if it wasn't so watery. I bought these two items from DriveWerks and I've emailed them about a replacement.
Wenol Auto & Motorcycle polish - tried this briefly, it worked no better, maybe not as good as the P21S MSFR
Wenol all-purpose metal polish - haven't tried yet.
Eagle One Mag & Aluminum polish - haven't tried yet, last resort I've heard this item is pretty caustic, so I'd like not to use it if I don't have to.
Luster Seal Polish & Sealant - to seal the surface when I finally get it clean.

So there is my arsenal, after about 30 minutes of elbowing the P21S MSFR and only getting about a 6" section of the one rim partially completed, I'm thinking a little power tool assistance might be in order. I'd like some recommendations on what exactly I could use to speed up and simplify this process

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I don't have a buffer, but thought they would be way too large for cleaning wheels. I have access to compressed air, so an air powered tools would be a possibility, I naturally have the normal powered tools. My real problem is finding a good polishing pad that would work well on the wheels. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for any and all recommendations.

TTFN
Tim
Our Brewzer

Daryl Morse · 03-18-03, 06:38

Isn't it fun trying to clean wheels? Not.

I just went through the same thing. It took hour and hours of hard work to remove all of the baked on crude from my wheels which were badly neglected by the previous owner of my car.

I started with BMW wheel cleaner, which I applied a couple of times with lots of scrubbing. The wheel cleaner worked pretty well, but it didn't touch the grease spots, which were all over the wheels front and back. For them, I tried several types of degreasers. Finally I settled on Oil-Flo Safety Solvent Cleaner because it broke down the baked on grease spots. I highly recommend you try it if you have stubborn spots that wheel cleaner won't remove. (I picked it up at a place that distributes janitorial supplies.)

Once I finished with the cleaning, the wheels were completely spotless. I applied Meguiars #20, which gave them a nice shine. They are a little easier to keep clean now, too.

Whatever you do, be careful about using something too harsh. Once the finish is damaged, you can't reverse it.