EnzianF90

I used the Adam’s wheel kit to coat my wheels which went well. I obviously had plenty of wheel coating left and ended up using it on the paint after some correction. Did I violate a cardinal rule of Adam’s coatings or will this be OK? Certainly appears great from what I see so far (currently curing).
 
The swirls/scratches were on an Xpel coating I had done a year ago so I must have introduced them with some bad washing habits (or maybe they were always under that coating I’m not sure). Only area I did was top of trunk lid where the imperfections had been bugging me. The SK Pro 15mm is a very powerful tool and worked great. 
 
Attached are a couple after photos; I forgot to take before. You probably wouldn’t be able to spot anything anyway from these photos but you can see how amazing the gloss looks.

Wheel Coating is absolutely fine for use for use on paint (I've done it, too). It's the same coating, just beefed up a bit to withstand the beating wheels take. Enjoy! And nice work.
 
For reference, here's a video to help with proper wash techniques.
 
 
 

Prepping wheels (at least wheels that aren’t brand new) is kind of a chore, especially ones with ridiculous brake dust. Beer and music helped a lot (and a sunny weekend here in LA). Adam’s wheel cleaner, APC, and brushes, then the SK mini with compound, all did the job well. 
 
Once I got to the actual coating it was very easy. With the UV light, even though I have zero experience at this, I was able to do large sections no problem. And people seem to complain a lot about the Ceramic Boost but I’ve had a great experience on my car and now again on the wheels. Ended up ceramic coating the brake calipers and exhaust tips, too.
 
I was looking for a little project and it was overall a hit for me. All the better if it makes maintenance washes as much easier as everyone says because cleaning wheels is a total grind. 

Prepping wheels (at least wheels that aren’t brand new) is kind of a chore, especially ones with ridiculous brake dust. Beer and music helped a lot (and a sunny weekend here in LA). Adam’s wheel cleaner, APC, and brushes, then the SK mini with compound, all did the job well. 
 
Once I got to the actual coating it was very easy. With the UV light, even though I have zero experience at this, I was able to do large sections no problem. And people seem to complain a lot about the Ceramic Boost but I’ve had a great experience on my car and now again on the wheels. Ended up ceramic coating the brake calipers and exhaust tips, too.
 
I was looking for a little project and it was overall a hit for me. All the better if it makes maintenance washes as much easier as everyone says because cleaning wheels is a total grind. 

Looking Good.

Love it!

NICE!!  

Just coated and boosted my wheels with the Adam’s kit. Showing off the results! Fun weekend project.  Mods, sorry it’s not a question but wanted to post. 
7FF1BBA9-0815-4CE0-8528-574329DDDE17.MOV

Just coated and boosted my wheels with the Adam’s kit. Showing off the results! Fun weekend project.  Mods, sorry it’s not a question but wanted to post. 
7FF1BBA9-0815-4CE0-8528-574329DDDE17.MOV

You will find that you won't need to use a wheel cleaner that often.  I ceramic coat my wheels and 95% of the time I use just soap and water.  I chemically decon less that a handful of times.  

I agree with Michael's assessment, that Wheel Cleaner is not required as often with coated wheels.  (I rely on a spray bottle of dilluted Car Shampoo most of the time.)  That said, I've had no problems using it AS DIRECTED on multiple sets of ceramic coated wheels.  The answer to your question is, therefore, you CAN use it as needed. 

I agree on coated wheels Shampoo, Wash + Coat and regular washing will be all you need to keep clean. Don't forget to do maintain  with CS3, Boost or Graphene Detail Spray.

I have also found that car shampoo takes care of the coated wheels the vast majority of the time.  I tend to use Eco Wheel Cleaner more than regular wheel cleaner, it doesn't smell nearly as bad.  I also use the Wheel & Tire Cleaner and have not found any adverse effects on the coated wheels.

Thanks so much for the detailed response @Dan@Adams (and @Chris@Adams and @falcaineer). Super helpful. The spot is rather small (like a nickel) and hard to notice on our “kid hauler” which gets beat up and parked outside all the time so it doesn’t bother me too much if it has to stay, though the idea of it growing concerns me.
 
After I corrected and polished the hood to try to remove the etch I applied Ceramic Boost so maybe that will help preserve it as is. I’ve toyed with the idea of some 2000 grit sandpaper (saw the video where Adam uses it on the Bentley) just to see if it’s an improvement but I definitely am not looking to go to the base coat or end up at a body shop. That sounds scary. 

Hi @EnzianF90
 
Unfortunately this type of bird dropping looks like it has etched the clear coat to the point that it has fractured the clear, which looks like small cracks and ripples in the clear coat. Bird droppings can be very acidic and can damage a clear coat in as little as a few hours if left on the surface or out in the hot sun. The acidic dropping eats through the clear, and the acid penetrating combined with the heat from the sun causes it to web outward - almost like how you will see a crack in a windshield enlarge and split out in different directions with extreme heat or cold, just on a much smaller scale. This example looks similar to what is known as "crow's feet" clear coat failure; however with crow's feet, it is a problem that is usually in a large area of a panel or sometimes an entire panel due to the cracks spreading from improper prep of the area (or from a repainted area that may not have been prepped very well).  

Polishing the area like you did can make it look better and reduce the appearance somewhat like Chris mentioned, but from looking at those pictures, the etching/cracks in this spot are most likely through the entire clear coat portion of the paint job, down to the base coat. So if you continue to compound and polish it, you could get down to the base coat before the cracking is fixed, and then you would have a bare paint spot that will be shiny but look different than the rest of the vehicle (I did this before being greedy with sanding a scratch on my project truck). Our Scratch & Swirl Remover has a fine grit abrasive to it, but I don't think it will fix this 100% in this particular case - if it was staining and discoloration from bird droppings, I usually have good luck with repairing that to near 100% fixed though.

In this case, you will most likely need to sand down the area and spray new clear coat, blending it in as evenly as possible. Painting is not in my skill set, so I agree with falcaineer's suggestion and would have a paint/body shop take a look at it like. If you want to hold off on body work, protecting the area with a sealant or ceramic coating would prolong the amount of time before it would potentially become worse, so it comes down to if it's in a very noticeable area of the hood that will bother you, or if you can tolerate it for the time being and try to hide it some with sealants and so on. If it was me, since my area is very cold in the winter months, I would wait until it warms up some if I had to go with the repaint option.