IME you simply *have* to remove the wheels for a good initial cleanup. I'd sure use a plastic-coated socket to avoid an "oops" on the wheels' finish, and yeah, I'd think a torque wrench is mandatory for remounting them.
[Off-topic: the dealers I patronize use torque *sticks* and they are *NOT* accurate. I make sure I send my own sockets for them to use and I either send along my spare torque wrench or I insist that they dig out their torque wrenches when the work on my vehicles. For that matter, I keep a plastic-coazted socket in the glovebox of some vehicles just so it's always handy, even for changing a flat.]
I didn't have much luck with my steamer (Daimer 1500C) when I tried it on a set of wheels a while back. I had high hopes considering how well it cleane my RX-7s never-cleaned calipers (20-some years of mess) but it just didn't do the job on the wheels the way I'd expected :nixweiss
I do best with a potent wheel cleaner, then clay and a solvent (the order depends on the wheels in question), then a polish/compound and/or a paintcleaner, then an AIO product, then the LSP.
Once you get 'em clean, yeah...layer on a sealant. FK1000P works great for this in part because of how it can be layered without a long wait between coats (ZFXed Zaino might work the same).
Then for washes, I clean the back sides by reaching through with small mitts and/or large swabs ("foam on a stick"). I find those methods work a lot better *for me* than the EZ Detail brush. The small mitts allow me to clean the back sides of the spokes quite well on 5-6 spoke wheels.
For BBS-style wheels I don't see anything other than the Power-Stick really doing the job :think:
reparebrise- Actually the wheel you posted doesn't look that bad for 30K! The uncleaned areas aren't nearly as bad as I've seen on wheels with far fewer miles.
