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Ceramic Wheel Coating


BRZN

Question

I'm off now through January 3rd and figured it'd be a good time to try Adam's new Wheel Coating on my wife's 2005 Volvo XC70. The wheels are in pretty decent shape for their miles, over 100k, with only one wheel having the slightest of any curb rash. They're taken care of regularly, and removed twice a year for a thorough cleaning, polishing (when needed), and sealing with Adam's Liquid Paint Sealant.

 

I did things a bit different than Adam shows in his video.

I started by getting the car up on jack stands at all four corners around 10:00 Thursday morning, temps were in the low 40's when I started and it made it to 50 by the mid afternoon. I was able to wash the wheels with Adam's Wheel Cleaner, and the tires with his Tire & Rubber Cleaner. By having the wheels off the ground I was able to spin them while washing to clean every part.

I then removed all four wheels, placed them one by one on a set of saw horses and cleaned the barrels, and back sides of the spokes. Once the tires were dry I marked each one with a grease pencil as to the corner they'll go back on.

With the wheels off I was able to get the inner wheel wells and brake calipers spotless. All Purpose Cleaner in the wheel wells with a Fender Brush, and Wheel Cleaner on the calipers scrubbed with a Trim and Lug Nut Brush.

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Check out that trim, almost two months since the Ceramic Trim Coating was applied, and still looking great!

 

A few minutes past noon, and two full hours at this point and I had to stop for a while, Dr. appointment for my yearly physical at 1:15.

 

A little past 2:00pm and I was back at it. The wheels were brought into the garage.

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Again, a bit different process than Adam showed in his video, I worked on the wheels standing over them, with them placed on my saw horses.

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I used the Coating Prep next. I took care of the Prep on all four wheels at once by wiping the barrels, and rear of the spokes first, then flipping the wheels over to do the face. When I removed the wheels from the saw horses I quickly wiped the barrel again, as some of the Coating Prep sprayed on the face dipped onto the barrel. Adam provides a Borderless Gray microfiber towel to be used with the Coating Prep in the Kit.

Each wheel was then placed back onto the saw horses to have the Ceramic Coating applied. Just as with the Prep, I started with the back sides barrels and rear of the spokes before completing the process to the fronts. These wheels are a six split spoke design, and painted silver. I'd never noticed until now, but the faces have a metallic silver, while the barrels are a flat silver, with no metallic. I could not see any rainbowing of the Coating as it set up. The only thing I could do was touch where I'd applied to check for tackiness. I found I could apply to the entire rear or front of the wheel at one time, wait 45 seconds to a minute then wipe them down with the second provided Borderless Gray microfiber towel from the Kit. The garage temp was mid 50's at best while I was doing the application of the Ceramic Coating. The temperature may have affected the set up time a bit. The instructions state 20-30 seconds, it hadn't gotten tacky by then yet for me. Inspection with my Swirl Finder LED light showed no imperfections in the application, so my timing to wipe down seemed okay, it was 5:00 and I was done for the day. Time to let them sit and cure.

 

10:00  Friday morning the Ceramic Boost was applied to each wheel; barrels, and rears of the spokes first, then the faces. The feel of the wheel with just the Ceramic Coating is unlike a coating of wax or sealant, there's noticeable drag, no slick or slippery fee to it. Once the Ceramic Boost was applied the wheels had the slick feel. After the faces of the wheels had the Boost wiped down I dressed the tires. Not bad, not to bad at all. Lets see how this holds up through the winter, it sure would be nice if it makes it a whole year!

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With the wheels off I also took care of the brake calipers. Friday, after I'd finished the wheels and tires I tackled them. I made sure they were nice and dry with my Side Kick, then just as with the wheels; wiped them clean with the Coating Prep, coated them with the Ceramic Wheel Coating and wiped them down (about 4 1/2 hours later) with the Ceramic Boost.

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We'd painted these raw calipers a couple/few years ago with POR-15, stuff holds up remarkably well.

Edited by BRZN
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Excellent write up! I've pondered these coatings more and more, and I'm getting pretty close to wanting to try them out!

 

This is starting to look like a "less is more" approach. Less time spent washing, more time spent admiring the shine!

I really hope the "less is more" approach holds true. This will be awesome if not much more than a stream of water is needed to keep the wheels clean! Quite a bit of time was spent on just this process of coating the wheels and calipers over two days. I couldn't help but take care of cleaning the wheel wells while the wheels were off, as well as thoroughly scrubbing the tires front and back with full access.

 

Nice write-up, thanks!  Looking forward to seeing how it holds up and how much easier it is to clean the wheels.

Me too! Info I've read states up to a year, we'll see...

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Sorry Lee, missed your question. As per this thread, I've Ceramic Coated my wife's wheels on her Volvo

and want to see how the coating holds up on them before I put the coating on the aluminum, wheels. I did have some Ceramic Paint Coating on the raw forged aluminum wheel barrels, but removed it last weekend. My slight fear is, (this being more of a show than go car) if I pick up a stone and it beats around inside the barrel, will it chip the Wheel Coating? If it does chip will the chip be noticeable? Will moisture get under it and give a hazy appearance to the area surrounding the chip? I could polish the Paint Coating off, the Wheel Coating, being much harder, would need sanded off. I really don't want to take sand paper to these wheels again.

http://www.adamsforums.com/topic/23540-my-turn-restoringpolishing-billet-aluminum-rims/?hl=brzn

Right now if I get a mark on them I can correct it. Oh, and the wife's Volvo wheels appear to be holding up nicely, with no noticeable chips through the NE winter.

I did get them polished up nicely:

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Edited by BRZN
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