Wheels off detail: step by step

4u2nvinmtl

4u2nvinmtl

New member
Wheels off step by step (Iron-X, Tarminator, D101 APC, D108 Degreaser)

I decided to write this because I admire the work of professional detailers do a wheels off detail and felt an enthusiast guide could be helpful. The below is for the enthusiasts and newcomers looking for a step by step and the products I used.

Disclaimer (just in case): Please do not attempt to lift a car or remove the wheels if you’re not comfortable or familiar with how to change a tire. Above all exercise caution and common sense when lifting a vehicle and removing the wheels (read the owner’s manual for appropriate lift points, use an appropriate jack and jack stands as a failsafe).

This is the third time I do a “wheels off detail” on my 09 Jeep SRT8. This past winter the Jeep experienced more mileage and abuse than all the previous winters combined (lowered, parked outside, daily driven, snow raced, and subjected to my LSP winter test).

Tools and Products:
  • 3 Ton quick lift jack
  • 1/2inch drive breaker bar
  • 1/2inch drive socket set
  • 1/2inch drive Torque Wrench (20-150 ft-lbs.)
  • Lock-lug-nut adaptor
  • Detailing tape or painters tape
  • Garden Gilmour sprayer
  • Regular 100ft garden hose (connected to hot water tank, optional)
  • 2x five-gallon buckets each with a grit guard
  • EZ detail brush (blue fox tail)
  • 1inch boar hair brush (optional)
  • Stuff hand held tire scrub brush (generic)
  • Rubber nitrile gloves (light blue, bring extra just in case)
  • Tire dressing applicator
  • Plastic razor blades
  • Foam art brush to apply dressing in tight areas (optional)
  • 8-12 borderless wheel duty towels (doesn’t have to be borderless)
  • A sacrificial wheel duty wash mitt (mine was ruined by the end)
  • Medium grade clay alternative wash mitt
  • Meguiars D110 Hyper Wash (1.5 OZ in one bucket per wheel)
  • Meguiars D114 Rinseless Wash (clay lube, drying aid)
  • Meguiars D101 All Purpose Cleaner (10:1 ratio)
  • Meguiars D107 Super Degreaser (4:1 ratio)
  • CarPro Iron-X LS (Lemon Sent)
  • Stoners Tarminator
  • Collinite 476s

Tools products:




 
Removing the wheels

Steps:
1. Use the appropriate socket on a 1/2inch drive breaker bar to “break loose” all the lug nuts before lifting (tip: put detailing/painters tape around the socket to prevent damage to the wheels).
2. Position the jack in the appropriate lift point and start to raise the jack (double check it hasn’t shifted before lifting the car)
3. Lift the car so that the tires are about 1 inch off the ground and place a jack stand to support the car.
4. Use the breaker bar (or smaller ratchet) to remove the lug nuts and remove the wheel from the car
5. Rinse and repeat for each wheel

Important note: Some cars have lock nuts that need an additional adaptor, make sure you have it beforehand.

About to lift the whole rear end:
 
Detailing the wheels while off

Steps:
1. Inspect the wheels and tires. I noticed my tires were at the wear bars, the SRT engravings were missing paint, and the rotors created rust on the hub of the wheel.
2. Rinse the wheels and tires with hot water and the “clean” setting on the sprayer.
3. APC the tires, let dwell and then scrub with stiff brush (mine were in great shape but if yours aren’t, consider a degreaser then follow up with an APC, a richer dilution ratio also helps)
4. Floor rinse the tire with hot water
5. Iron-X the wheels after most of the water runs off and let it dwell (5-15mins, just don’t let it dry)
6. Agitate the Iron-X with the brushes and then follow up with the wash mitt from the soapy water bucket
7. Flood rinse the wheels with hot water.
8. Re-Iron-X the problem area’s (hub’s, engravings, lug nut holes) and let it dwell.
9. Agitate the Iron-X with brushes (short dwell) and then use the soapy water wash mitt.
10. Flood rinse the wheels with hot water.
11. Tarminator the problem areas (in my case mostly the barrel of the wheel) and let it dwell
12. Follow up with a plastic razor to scrape off the tar chunks
13. Tarminator again and dwell again
14. Use the soapy wash mitt to wipe away the dissolved tar
15. Flood rinse the wheel with hot water
16. Clay wet wheel using D114 as lube and medium grade clay alternative until smooth
17. Flood rinse and dry using D114 as drying aid and edgeless wheel towels

Note: no LSP was applied because these wheels have a lifetime factory coating that’s part of the Alcoa forging process (called Dura-Brite). I highly recommend applying a LSP (coating or sealant) to non-factory-coated wheels as step 16.

Inspection:




















First pass of Iron-X:














Second pass of Iron-X:






Tarminator:




Rinsed:




















Beading shots (no LSP applied, just factory coating):






My wife touching up the paint:








Ready to go back on:
 
Cleaning and protecting the wheel wells

Steps:
1. Inspect the wheel wells, suspension, drivetrain, and breaks for wear/damage. I noticed a fair amount of rust setting in on some bolts and some mild wear on the bushings and brake pads. I also noticed that the clear is peeling on 3 of 4 calipers and need to be rebuilt & paints by this coming fall.
2. Rinsed everything with hot water and the “clean” setting on the sprayer.
3. Soaked everything with Meguiars D108 Super Degreaser except the greased bushings and let it dwell and then followed up with the brushes and the mitt (EZ detail brush first, then the 1inch boar, then the soapy mitt). Note: do not inhale any degreaser mist, its real nasty stuff (wear a mask/scarf/bandana to cover your mouth/nose -> highly recommended)
4. Flood rinse with hot water
5. Soaked everything with Meguiars D101 APC except the greased bushings and let it dwell and then followed up with the brushes and the mitt (EZ detail brush first, then the 1inch boar, then the soapy mitt). Note: do not inhale any APC mist, its real nasty stuff (wear a mask/scarf/bandana to cover your mouth/nose -> highly recommended)
6. Flood rinse with hot water
7. Soaked everything with Stoners Tarminator except the greased bushings and let it dwell and then followed up with the brushes and the mitt (EZ detail brush first, then the 1inch boar, then the soapy mitt).
8. Blast with hot water and step down to flood rinse
9. Dry with borderless towels and D114 as a drying aid
10. Protect with 476s as it doesn’t stain plastics (I basically applied it everywhere but the greased areas)

My set up to clean the wheel wells:


Wheel well inspection:


Degreaser/APC:


Tarminator rinse off:


Final rinse / inspection:




The buckets after one wheel well:


Dried and applied Collinite 476s:


 
Reinstalling the detailed wheels

Steps
1. Carefully position the wheels so that studs line up with the holes in the hub and lift the wheel onto the studs (I use my toes as a shim and make small adjustments to get them on quickly and easily).
2. Hand tighten the lugs and follow up with the breaker bar or ratchet (tighten the lug across from the one you last tighten, don’t go in a circle, do it like you’d draw a five pointed star)
3. Apply dressing to the tire while it’s mounted and off the ground.
4. Repeat for each wheel & tire.
5. Position the jack in the appropriate lift point and start to raise the jack (double check it hasn’t shifted before lifting the car off of the jack stand)
6. Lift the car, remove the jack stand and lower.
7. Repeat for the other three jack stands.
8. Prepare the torque wrench (check calibration date to be sure it’s not too old), and set it to the appropriate torque rating for the wheel lugs (in my case 100 ft-lbs)
9. Apply steady consistent force only to the handle of the torque wrench until it clicks indicating you’ve reached the target goal (don’t keep tightening once you hear a click). Double-check by slowly applying more and more pressure to the handle until you hear a click (lug shouldn’t turn before the click on the second attempt). This must be done in a star pattern (always tighten the lug across from the one you last tightened, start with any lug).
10. Repeat for every lug on every wheel and always double-check (people’s lives are at stake here)!

Getting ready to mount the wheels:


Before:


First wheel mounted and tired freshly dressed:


Halfway finished:




Unfortunately, I ran out of daylight to take pictures of the front tires mounted and I didn’t want to set up my flashes/lighting as I was already beat (I’ve been a keyboard detailer for most of the winter). So I’m using another shot to show how it looks with the wheels mounted (after last years wheel off detail):


Note: The front wheel wells took much longer to clean than the rears.

Questions, comments, concerns and error/type-o commentsoments welcomed.
 
4u2nvinmtl !

Beautiful, well thought-out, perfect, job !!!

I loved the way you and your sweetheart got those beautiful alloy wheels looking just perfect !! They are really nice !!!

Thanks so much for going to all that hard work alone, and then taking all the extra time to shoot it, document, edit, and post it up !

That last picture - in front of a Church, right?, even with that leaning tree - beautiful in all respects...

Thanks so much, mi Amigo !
Dan F
 
Great writeup! For you guys with a bad back like me. I have a Joes Racing roller that works great for spinning the wheels around on the workbench.

 
Ronkh said:
Wow

Thats a lot of work.

Did you replace your wifes nail polish ??
Click to expand...

Actually, I picked the red out myself. You should have seen me in the womans section of the pharmacy asking the attractive esthetician about which red nail polishes dont fade in UV light and which ones last the longest and bonds to metal. She was very confused as to what my intent was for this nail polish. She was borderline supsusis but she suggested a nice clear to go over the red once I explained myself a bit.

Thanks! It was a lot of work. I had to carry the wheels up and down the stairs to my 1970s shag blue carpet basement.
 
edb said:
Nice writeup! Thanks for sharing. So are you doing a tire rotation at,the same time?
Click to expand...

The summer wheels are staggered (9 inches wide in the front and 10 inches wide in the rear) and the Nitto NT05 tires are asymmetrical (left or right side specific) so they cant be swapped or rotated (meaning each tire goes in a specific place). The winter wheels, however, are not staggered and the tires are not asymmetrical, so they do get rotated every 2 years, even though the tire wear is fairly even front to back and side to side.

Thank you :)
 
Your hard work definitely paid off. Beautiful rims. I enjoy your write ups and posts.

I completed a wheels off detail on my 97 Gr Prix GTs wheels about 10 years ago. I had access to a lift and impact wrench and it was still a PITA. If my wheels were in half as good as condition as yours when I bought my two cars used, Id be very happy.

Door jambs, wheels, and wheel wells are the first place I look when critiquing someones level of detailing.
 
Wonderful step by step explanation of your wheel cleaning and protecting process. Does your wife know you stole the detailing seat out of your house? Lol. Im still sitting on a bucket with a padded lid. One day Im going to treat myself to one of those fancy padded spinning stools with the space for supplies.
 
4u2nvinmtl-= Great write-up, and (no surprise) nice work keeping up your SRT in the places that can easily get overlooked.

One tweak if I may- I wedge a wheel-chock in front of a wheel at the opposite end of the vehicle to prevent (hopefully minimal) rolling when I jack it up.

EDIT: another tweak if you dont mind the expense- a speed-wrench is a lot quicker and easier than a regular ratchet. An impact would be even moreso, but eh...not on my vehicles, thank you.

How to treat the matte/satin/flat black bits in areas like this could be a whole article in itself!

LEDetailing said:
Door jambs, wheels, and wheel wells are the first place I look when critiquing someones level of detailing.
Click to expand...

Same here, along with the undercarriage. And the fuel-filler pocket. And the backside of the wiper arms. And..
 
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