Cleaning undercarriage/wheel wells

C

cheekyage

New member
<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Hi all,

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Can you recommend any products that will help turn my dirty and faded black undercarriage/wheel well trim to restore a nice clean and deep black colour?

<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:verdana, geneva, lucida, 'lucida grande', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">Looking forward to your feedback 
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For the undercarriage.........a good APC with a brush followed by something like Chemical Guys Bare Bones will do the trick.
 
Welcome to Autopia! Yes, give them a deep cleaning with some All Purpose Cleaner (APC) and brush them with a stiff brush. Then, apply either a water based or solvent based dressing for the icing on the cake. I prefer a clean, undressed look personally, but make that call after you clean them and after they are dry. 
 
cheekyage- Welcome to Autopia!


 


As noted, the first step is to clean things up.  How trashed the plastic is will determine what your next step should be.


 


If it's not too bad then either a dressing based approach or a trim sealant (I like Ultima's Tire and Trim Guard Plus) will work.  IF the sealant seems like overkill but you still want to do something other than a dressing, some rinseless washes leave a nice sheen (I use Garry Dean's Ultimate Use Detail Juice) or you can use a Quick Detailer ("QD", for this specific job I use ValuGard's Fast Finish).


 


For a dressing based approach (which I myself generally avoid) you can try a tire/trim dressing or even one of the sorta-slimy "undercarriage sprays", but watch that you don't get the latter on any place where you don't want it (including your garage floor/driveway).


 


If the plastic is so abraded by the stuff the wheels throw up then you have to decide how involved you want to get.  On my wife's A8 I just let it go; some areas are worn but hey, it's a high-mile daily driver.  Options to improve such a condition include refinishing the plastic (ValuGard's Exterior Trim Restoration kit) or just replacing the plastic bits (easy on some cars, not easy on that A8).


 


So I'd clean it up and see if a QD or a tire/trim product gives you satisfactory results.
 
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