Cleaning Your Wheel Wells

I have some old Engine Kote from Meguiars sitting around. Anyone still use that stuff? I thought it was supposed to be good for this purpose as it didnt attract dust.
 
Accumulator, that's a good idea about the jack. I'll have to see if there's a midpoint that's safe to jack; I wouldn't mind doing it once each side, but would be too lazy to do one wheel at a time. And of course I couldn't let Wifey catch me doing it for she already thinks me a bit over the edge on car care...
 
Accumulator said:
I'd be a little careful about which vehicles you use a toilet brush on...just as you probably wouldn't wash your hood with one, there are some wheelwells where I wouldn't want to mar the paint with such a thing.
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Wise advice Accumulator. Vet the task first, buy the tool second.



There's no paint that I've found in the wells and the long handle and agitation factor have worked out well for my wells, and that's the only place that brush gets used.

As an aside, I've discovered my big BHB has more hair than I do. It's just not fair.

-John C.
 
Hey guys! Even if you use a floor jack, don't foget the jack stands as a safety measure. Better safe than sorry.



ShineMGood: Megs Engine Kote will work great!
 
dpsorg said:
I'll have to see if there's a midpoint that's safe to jack; I wouldn't mind doing it once each side, but would be too lazy to do one wheel at a time. And of course I couldn't let Wifey catch me doing it for she already thinks me a bit over the edge on car care...
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My wife doesn't give me any grief about this stuff as I've found "uh-oh, better get that fixed before her trip" problems in the course of my extreme washes :D



A few ideas on how to do two wheels with one jack: raise the front/rear of the vehicle instead of the sides; put a *study* piece of wood under the vehicle to span the two jacking points that many vehicles have and put the jack under the wood. Or just do two wheels one wash and the other two the next time.



Black Diamond said:
Even if you use a floor jack, don't foget the jack stands as a safety measure.
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Good advice. I gotta admit I don't always bother with the jackstands when I'm just raising it up enough to gain access to the wheelwells :o but I'm not gonna say that's a good idea. Sometimes I don't come near getting it high enough *for* a jackstand but I still get enough suspension travel to be able to reach in and clean things.



But yeah, if you're gonna go sliding around on a creeper to clean the undercarriage right, put some stands under there. It's not like catastrophic jack failures never happen.
 
Accumulator said:
Heh heh, yeah, I would too ;) I've had some very expensive jacks fail too, you just never know.
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I was lubricating some suspension pieces a couple of weeks ago and had the rear suspended by a jack and jack stands under the frame as a precaution. That was a huge mistake. I should have lowered the car onto the jack stands because my driveway sits on a very slight incline. The jack began to ever so slightly roll and knocked the jack stands over.



For a moment, I honestly thought I was going to get crushed. I was able to suspend the movement of the car rolling for a moment, yell like a little girl to my wife who luckily had the window open and she ran down and helped to reposition the jack stands.



A very important lesson for me. Never use the jack to do anything but lift and suspend momentarily until jack stands can hold the entire weight of the vehicle.
 
spendyg- Yikes, I'm glad that didn't end badly! It's a perfect example of how people need to be so very careful about this stuff. Yeah, having the weight on the stands would've made all the difference in that case.
 
I have a question about cleaning my wheel wells, and any insight would be greatly appreciated. After scrubbing one portion with a stiff brush and using simple green my previously black wheel well revealed a textured white surface underneath:confused: I magnified a portion where i scratched off the white with my fingernail, but more scrubbing does nothing. AFAIK these are not painted wells so the white is puzzling. Thanks in advance I hope:)

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Nothing a little black rubberized undercoating won't correct. That's pretty much what the factory does. Or spray paint them black.
 
It looks like the undercoating (as David mentioned) is coming off. It happens... you can probably get some at your local store and put some more on.
 
The wells look to be body white - the color car bodies usually come in before they are painted at the factory. They're covered in a rubberized undercoating - you can just spray more on the white parts and it'll look and protect like new. Make sure its perfectly clean before spraying - you don't want water or debris to get under the coating and rust out on you.
 
themightytimmah said:
The wells look to be body white - the color car bodies usually come in before they are painted at the factory. They're covered in a rubberized undercoating - you can just spray more on the white parts and it'll look and protect like new..
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Yeah, so don't scrape off any more of the white stuff ;)



There are a number of ways you can go with undercoating. I somehow prefer the *non* rubberized stuff, but that's just me...I find the rubberized stuff comes off more readily, especially if the prep wasn't perfect. I usually get my black undercoating stuff from Eastwood Company Home Page



Wurth has a product of this type: Wurth High Build Underbody Aerosol . If you want some PM me and I'll sell you a few cans cheaper than you'll find elsewhere.
 
Thanks for the replies, that was a huge mystery to me. I'm going to go do some more research and figure out what will work best for my situation:)
 
Hey Everyone,



I have found one product that works great! No Touch Wet N' Protect. By far the best! It goes on clear with no mess or hassle. Do your tires and your wells and everything else. I spray it on my suspension and diff/axle and chassis to give my truck that new look underneath. You can purchase a 4 pack at sams club for about $10.00.
 
scrape said:
Hey Everyone,



I have found one product that works great! No Touch Wet N' Protect. By far the best! It goes on clear with no mess or hassle. Do your tires and your wells and everything else. I spray it on my suspension and diff/axle and chassis to give my truck that new look underneath. You can purchase a 4 pack at sams club for about $10.00.
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yup! I do the same thing with that product. The only people is I dont have a sams club around here. Ive got to pay around $5 per can. :rolleyes:
 
i was curious... does anyone dilute armor all? i noticed autozone carries the 48 oz jug ($9.99) and thought this would be perfect for that task (dressing the wells)...

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