Good morning Ladies and Gents,
I purchased some rather expensive three piece forged aluminum wheels and paid extra for matte black powdercoat. I thought the powdercoat would be a low maintenance finish but with the very hard (1200+ ppm tds) water here in the desert I have noticed a bit of an issue. First, let me start by saying that when the wheels first arrived new from the factory, I decontaminated any manufacturing oils and immediately coated with GTechniq C5 wheel coating, which I'm thoroughly convinced was just C1 Crystal Lacquer in a different bottle, but I digress. During the coating process I noticed that the C5 seemed to be completely absorbed by the powdercoat. There was not really anything left to wipe away after a brief flashover period. The end result is that I was left with a bit of beading for a short period of time but no real protection.
Herein lies the problem. I wash my car only with softened water taken directly from the hot water heater. The caveat is that softened water isn't really "soft". The ion exchange resins in water softeners just exchange calcium and magnesium ions for sodium and chlorine ions. The end result is that you wash your car with salt water instead of mineral water. I know, I know, get a CR Spotless system! Well I did, and the results were amazing, but expensive. At this level of hardness, I can only expect about 50 gallons of DI water from the big daddy "300 gallon" system. That means I need a $100+ resin refill after only 3 car washes! End result, I'm stuck with salt water for washing the car.
My wheels have taken on a sort of ashy appearance over the last 10 months. I only wash with mild Griots Garage soap and then rinse/blow dry immediately. I suspect that the salt has permeated my powdercoat somehow. I would like to know what to try in order to remove the ashy appearance and then seal up the wheels. I have a lift and an airbrush if that helps any. I recently purchased some CG water spot remover and I plan to do a test spot to see if it takes the ashyness out of the powdercoat. If that doesn't work, what do you recommend? In terms of sealing the porous powdercoat, what is better than GTechniq C5? I have seen Rasky R1 apply Opti Coat with an airbrush and as a car model hobbyist I am pretty good with an airbrush. Any thoughts?
Cheers
- Patrick
I purchased some rather expensive three piece forged aluminum wheels and paid extra for matte black powdercoat. I thought the powdercoat would be a low maintenance finish but with the very hard (1200+ ppm tds) water here in the desert I have noticed a bit of an issue. First, let me start by saying that when the wheels first arrived new from the factory, I decontaminated any manufacturing oils and immediately coated with GTechniq C5 wheel coating, which I'm thoroughly convinced was just C1 Crystal Lacquer in a different bottle, but I digress. During the coating process I noticed that the C5 seemed to be completely absorbed by the powdercoat. There was not really anything left to wipe away after a brief flashover period. The end result is that I was left with a bit of beading for a short period of time but no real protection.
Herein lies the problem. I wash my car only with softened water taken directly from the hot water heater. The caveat is that softened water isn't really "soft". The ion exchange resins in water softeners just exchange calcium and magnesium ions for sodium and chlorine ions. The end result is that you wash your car with salt water instead of mineral water. I know, I know, get a CR Spotless system! Well I did, and the results were amazing, but expensive. At this level of hardness, I can only expect about 50 gallons of DI water from the big daddy "300 gallon" system. That means I need a $100+ resin refill after only 3 car washes! End result, I'm stuck with salt water for washing the car.
My wheels have taken on a sort of ashy appearance over the last 10 months. I only wash with mild Griots Garage soap and then rinse/blow dry immediately. I suspect that the salt has permeated my powdercoat somehow. I would like to know what to try in order to remove the ashy appearance and then seal up the wheels. I have a lift and an airbrush if that helps any. I recently purchased some CG water spot remover and I plan to do a test spot to see if it takes the ashyness out of the powdercoat. If that doesn't work, what do you recommend? In terms of sealing the porous powdercoat, what is better than GTechniq C5? I have seen Rasky R1 apply Opti Coat with an airbrush and as a car model hobbyist I am pretty good with an airbrush. Any thoughts?
Cheers
- Patrick
