Car detailing, or car valeting, as it is called in Britain, means the thorough cleansing and polishing of a vehicle. One of the dirtiest parts of any car is the wheels and the wheel arches. Dust and mud are the chief culprits here. Every single car suffers from road dust and brake pad dust and these are normally held in place by a thick layer of mud, particularly if it has rained.
Brake dust comes chiefly from the wearing away of the brake pads on their disk brakes. It is very abrasive and needs to be cleaned away on a regular basis. Likewise, road dust which is mostly stone dust, is also abrasive and it should be removed as soon as you can. After a time or as soon as it rains, clay and mud will get kicked up over these dusts and stick them all firmly in place.
This can have the result of brakes becoming hotter than they should do, which has the effect of raising the chance of brake failure due to excess heat. So you ought to remove this coating regularly not merely because it is unattractive, but because it can become a safety hazard. Therefore, detailing your car wheels is one of the most vital jobs in valeting your car.
There are, naturally, lots of decent cleaning fluids for this job. If your wheel rims are painted, you may want to test any cleaning fluid you are thinking of using by rubbing some of it on a very small part of paint so see if it bleaches it or takes the paint off altogether. This is not likely, but it is worth checking, if you have unusual wheel rims.
This test should be carried out for cleaning fluid and for polish. You ought to use cleaning fluid and polish that is compatible with the metal that your wheels are made from. So if you do not know, you will need to find out.
Are they cast iron, steel, aluminium alloy or magnesium alloy? You do not want to apply fluids that will attack the metal, because that will cost you a great deal of money in the long run. You can find out easily in the car’s handbook or in a garage.
If you are utilizing the same cleaning gear on the body of the car as on the wheels, you ought to clean the body first, because the dust and particles on the wheels will be more coarse and more plentiful on the wheels and you do not want to transfer it to your coachwork.
Similarly, clean all the mud and dust out from the wheel arch before you start on the wheel itself. Once the wheel arches are clean, you can remove the hub caps and clean inside. put any nuts you take off in a jam jar so that you cannot lose any of them.
Keep in mind to put everything back on in the order that you took it off – first off, first on – and if you cannot keep in mind how tight to make everything write it down as you take it off. While you are down there, you could check the brake lines and bleed them if required. Try to clean your car at least once a month, but each fortnight is better and once a week is perfect.
Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now involved with how to get alloy wheels and tyre packages. If you would like to know more, please visit our website at Car Tyres For Sale.