Cleaning wheels wells

My car is spotless as we speak, the only thing that is bugging the hell out of me is the dirt and crap in the wheel wells. Whats a good way to clean them out and keep them clean? I believe it's all plastic surrounding the wheels. Anything to clean the tar/road paint/dirt, and then keep it from sticking.
 
i presoak with p21s citrus degreaser or meg's apc and scrub with a brush. Scrub till the dirt/tar comes off, if it's real stubborn try some stoner's tarminator. I dry and follow with some armor all tire foam on plastics. allow to sit for a few minutes, wipe excess with a towel. Cleans up 100x easier the next wash and will look much better.
 
Use any All Purpose Cleaner in the wheels, then after rinsing and drying, use a tire dressing.







Personally, with OTC stuff, go with Eagle 1 A2Z as per instructions, then dress with Armor All. You will be impressed (I was :)).
 
I clean up mine with Autoglym Engine and Machine cleaner and Autoglym Tar and Adhesive remover, not yet found a dressing that does not attract anything to stick to it, so leave off dressing them unless at a show.
 
I pre-soak with Simple Green. Scrub with a toilet brush. Rinse. Then spray with cheap TireFoam. Wipe dry.



Many tire dressings are greasy and sticky to the touch, but the Armorall TireFoam from WalMart ($2.44 per can) works great and dries fairly dry.



Wheels will look like brand new.



HINT: I do this first, before I clean the car, because the tire foam tends to overspray just a little.
 
Richt said:
...[I've] not yet found a dressing that does not attract anything to stick to it, so leave off dressing them...



Yeah, same here. Once you get them really clean, if you clean them at every wash they'll usually look good even with no dressings. FWIW, I use products basically intended for paint (e.g., KSG, BF) on the wheelwells of the S8, even the plastic parts. Seems to work fine. But the ones I *only* clean look good too, at least for daily drivers.



I keep a floorjack on each side of the wash bay to raise the vehicles up a little to gain better access. The regular cleanings really do go fast and easy.
 
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