RaysWay
Autopia Specialist
Last night I started on a 2006 BMW 3-Series 325i Sedan and ran into some CAKED on brake dust.
My normal process is to clean the wheels/tires, wash the car, decontaminate the paint, dry it off then restore headlights/taillights on day one, so the car is prepped and ready to be polished inside on day two. I arrived at the dealership at my normal 6:30 pm time and started to work on the wheels and tires.
Here's a picture of the car before I started.
After starting on the first wheel and tire, I quickly realized this was going to be a long night. There were patches of brake dust that looked like they've been there for a long time. After multiple applications of Optimum FerreX, I decided break the glass on a bottle of Iron X Paste.
I haven't had to use this stuff since the first time I cleaned the wheels on my Nissan Maxima which was my first detail ever at PBMG.
I was losing daylight quickly so I had to use my LED Light Stand to keep working in the dark. This picture was taken after I'd say 6-8? applications of Optimum Ferrex.
These are the patches that I had to keep working on.
By the way, these Orange Heavy Duty Nitrile Gloves are great. I'm also wearing an N95 3M Disposable Respirator.
I applied a small dab of Iron X Paste to the trouble spots and spread it out using my finger.
Iron X Paste takes a little longer to work than spray on Iron Removers. I waited 5-6 minutes for the paste to work.
Then I came back and sprayed the wheels with Optimum FerreX, I'm glad I bought a gallon.
I spent over 4 hours on the wheels alone to get to this point, with at least 15 different cleaning steps on the front two wheels. The drivers side front wheel was the worst and the only wheel that I didn't get perfectly clean. I worked on two wheels and tires at a time and got the other wheels looking perfect (without taking the wheels off of course). So I decided to move ahead with the detail since this was taking so long and ended up washing the car and decontaminated before drying it. I'll have to wash the car again anyways after polishing to prep it for a coating so I'll just finish the drivers side front wheel on the second wash.
The rear wheels and tires were much easier to clean with only two applications of FerreX on each wheel. I used Amazing Roll Off undiluted on the tires. On the bright side, I was able to scrub the tires several times while the Iron X Paste was dwelling.
I just wanted to share my experience with very stubborn wheels. I've never spent more than 2 hours on wheels and tires and I wasn't going to let the wheels win.
Full write-up on this BMW coming soon! I didn't get as far into the detail as I normally do on day one but it was a good night nonetheless. I'll just have to polish the headlights before polishing tonight.
Thanks for reading!
My normal process is to clean the wheels/tires, wash the car, decontaminate the paint, dry it off then restore headlights/taillights on day one, so the car is prepped and ready to be polished inside on day two. I arrived at the dealership at my normal 6:30 pm time and started to work on the wheels and tires.
Here's a picture of the car before I started.
After starting on the first wheel and tire, I quickly realized this was going to be a long night. There were patches of brake dust that looked like they've been there for a long time. After multiple applications of Optimum FerreX, I decided break the glass on a bottle of Iron X Paste.
I haven't had to use this stuff since the first time I cleaned the wheels on my Nissan Maxima which was my first detail ever at PBMG.
I was losing daylight quickly so I had to use my LED Light Stand to keep working in the dark. This picture was taken after I'd say 6-8? applications of Optimum Ferrex.
These are the patches that I had to keep working on.
By the way, these Orange Heavy Duty Nitrile Gloves are great. I'm also wearing an N95 3M Disposable Respirator.
I applied a small dab of Iron X Paste to the trouble spots and spread it out using my finger.
Iron X Paste takes a little longer to work than spray on Iron Removers. I waited 5-6 minutes for the paste to work.
Then I came back and sprayed the wheels with Optimum FerreX, I'm glad I bought a gallon.
I spent over 4 hours on the wheels alone to get to this point, with at least 15 different cleaning steps on the front two wheels. The drivers side front wheel was the worst and the only wheel that I didn't get perfectly clean. I worked on two wheels and tires at a time and got the other wheels looking perfect (without taking the wheels off of course). So I decided to move ahead with the detail since this was taking so long and ended up washing the car and decontaminated before drying it. I'll have to wash the car again anyways after polishing to prep it for a coating so I'll just finish the drivers side front wheel on the second wash.
The rear wheels and tires were much easier to clean with only two applications of FerreX on each wheel. I used Amazing Roll Off undiluted on the tires. On the bright side, I was able to scrub the tires several times while the Iron X Paste was dwelling.
I just wanted to share my experience with very stubborn wheels. I've never spent more than 2 hours on wheels and tires and I wasn't going to let the wheels win.
Full write-up on this BMW coming soon! I didn't get as far into the detail as I normally do on day one but it was a good night nonetheless. I'll just have to polish the headlights before polishing tonight.
Thanks for reading!
Now 3 years later I'm a full on detailing junkie...
I'll keep an eye out for them. 