Recommendations for a wheel LSP.

Fishing

Fishing

Member
I am asking for help finding a LSP for wheels. I am not ready to try a ceramic coating.
My priorities are:
#1 Protection
#2 Longevity

I am thinking of winter protections here. Does anyone have any recommendations ?

Thank you for your help.
 
I live in Western PA and all the family DD`s stay outside 24/7, reserving the one available garage stall for my Camino. My favorite for wheels is Finish Kare FK1000p. Just an inexpensive wax/sealant, but it lasts nearly forever on wheels. Accumulator is a serious fan of this on his vehicle`s paint for its longevity. If I`m not doing a coating, I prefer one of the Collinite pastes, either 476 or 915 for winter paint prep, but neither seems to last as long on wheels as the FK. BTW, I have three different variations of wheels on the family fleet:silver painted, clearcoated and chrome. Performance of the FK is great on all variations. None of the cars gets serious mileage, but an intense wheel cleaning is needed only twice yearly. Otherwise, the wheels get cleaned with whatever I`m using on the paint.

Bill
 
The Sonax PNS sure gets raver reviews! It`s one of the few things that gets favorably compared to FK1000P on a regular basis.

Billy Jack said:
.. My favorite for wheels is Finish Kare FK1000p. Just an inexpensive wax/sealant, but it lasts nearly forever on wheels. Accumulator is a serious fan of this...
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Right.

I previously used KSG X 6, having found Collinite (845 and 476S) insufficiently durable. But getting six layers of anything on wheels means "off the road for days" and the FK1000P holds up about as well with far fewer layers.

FK1000P`ed wheels do indeed clean up fine with shampoo mix, and if an occasional quickie reapplication on the faces needs doing that`s easy enough. No, I don`t bother refreshing the back sides, I just let that go until the Big Annual Job. Which isn`t really *that* big of a job as everything usually cleans up quite easily, even any areas that I`ve somehow failed to keep nice throughout the year (that would be a clue that I need to do better ;) ).

I have a new bottle of 22ple coating sitting here for use on some wheels, but I`m actually experiencing Buyer`s Remorse over it because I can`t justify the time/effort compared to just using an AIO followed by the FK, which goes *MUCH* quicker for me and is utterly Accumulator-proof (the OptiCoat wasn`t bad, but it was a lot harder than AIO + FK1000P and any issues needed spotted right away, which doesn`t always work for me).

I don`t get the Hydro2/etc. approach for, uhm..."wheels that matter"...how do you do the barrels/back sides well enough that they`re not nasty by the time you pull the wheels off to do things right? I`m not flaming it, and it sounds kinda similar to what do on the Tahoe`s winter wheels, which I`ve been leaving bare, cleaning with Wheel Cleaner, and wiping with [whatever Drying Aid] to keep `em shiny and dust-shedding. BUT...that`s an old set of winter wheels on the beater truck, not like the nice oe wheels I run on it during the warmer months, let alone any wheels on the other vehicles. And even those need attention to the back sides/barrels even if I`m just doing something quick and I`m not sure how you`d do that with Hydro2/etc.
 
WOW great response and informations,,,good learning material. Now i got some thinking to do :) Thank you all for your help and time.
 
Another vote for FK1000P. Not as easy to apply as spray and rinse. But last much longer for me. I haven`t been impressed with Wet Coat or hydroblue. Application is stupid easy, just wasn`t happy with the longevity.
 
Ron Ketcham said:
Just a couple of thin coats of #1000P is all you really need, heck, if you want put on more than 2.
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Yeah, and doing too many layers, too close together, can render the FK1000P, uhm...less than Accumulator-proof; you can get pseudo-holograms that can be a huge PIA to sort out.

(Ketch has explained what probably went haywire for me, yes indeed- "user-error!", but still...it`s easier for *me* to just not overdo the layering compared to changing my technique. Yeah, I realize how [crappy] that sounds :o )

On the back sides/barrels I do try to get three or four layers, just because I don`t plan to refresh those areas and I don`t want anything I miss to build up and be a hassle later when I do that Big Annual Redo.
 
Fishing- If you get a chance, please post back about how the FK works for you. I`m such a fanboy for the stuff that I kinda feel responsible whenever somebody here tries it for the first time.
 
FK1000P works, but if one is going through all the work of taking the wheels off, one might as well coat the wheel with some type of paint coating. Yes paint coating, there are some reports, that I have been coming across, that are noticing longer performance going with *certain* paint coatings vs *certain* wheel coatings. Heck while one is in there and has plastic/painted wheel wells, clean and coat them, too.

@Fishing, you have no need to worry about coating a wheel, unless it is black. If the vehicle you have in question is a daily driver, chances are that you will not notice any high spots due to some level of dirt getting onto the wheel. In fact, coating a wheel is a great place to start with ceramic coatings because only a certain percentage of the wheel is visible at a given time, so if you mess up, chances are that you will not see the mess up.

I`ve have been back in LBK for two weeks, there is so much dust here that dressings are like a magnet for dirt, well everything here is a magnet for dirt. If I can get the opportunity I would love to coat all of the wheel wells, plastics, wheels, and tires so I don`t have to worry much about them, and just keep them clean. Coating is the way to go and with proper prep and good coating, you`ll get longer protection with a coating vs any type of sealant. Shoot, I`d love to coat the whole car and just call it a day. As of today, my SNS failed on the roof, one month`s longevity. The conditions are pretty harsh though.

Back to topic, if going wheels off, clean and coat everything you can and don`t look back. If you don`t want to spend a ton of money on a coating, look to DPC Shield as it will go on anything but glass and interior, and is $39.00 for 4 floz. You can`t beat that deal unless you want to step up to something like GTech CSL or KAMIKAZE ISM COAT V2.0. The one caveat to DPC Shield is that you will get about a years worth of durability unlike the longer durability of a higher grade coating.
 
TheMeanGreen said:
FK1000P works, but if one is going through all the work of taking the wheels off, one might as well coat the wheel with some type of paint coating..
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Eh, maybe it`s just me, or the style of the wheels, but there was *NO* comparison between how long it took me to do the coating vs. AIO + FK1000P. Factored over time, doing the coating wasn`t time-efficient for me; it took longer overall.

That`s leaving aside the topic of how often the wheels oughta come off for a proper cleaning anyhow ;)

If the vehicle you have in question is a daily driver, chances are that you will not notice any high spots due to some level of dirt getting onto the wheel.
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I dunno...guess that`s one of those (legitimately) subjective things.

...Heck while one is in there and has plastic/painted wheel wells, clean and coat them, too....If I can get the opportunity I would love to coat all of the wheel wells, plastics, wheels, and tires so I don`t have to worry much about them, and just keep them clean.
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IME, you don`t need coatings to get those areas to the point where you can just maintain them with a SprayWax in the course of the maintenance washes. Once they`re clean and protected (with most anything), it`s really easy to keep them that way. As with the wheels, that always gets me by until the next biannual Big Cleanup (OK, the ones that don`t get driven in the winter only get that annually), and every year that Big job gets easier too.

Eh...I sound more critical of coatings than I intend to. More like I`m arguing with you than I mean to also! Maybe it`s one of those Sour Grapes things...the approach doesn`t seem to work as well for me as it does for you (and others) so in my disappointment I`m being critical when maybe I`m the, uhm...confounding factor :o
 
TheMeanGreen said:
FK1000P works, but if one is going through all the work of taking the wheels off, one might as well coat the wheel with some type of paint coating. Yes paint coating, there are some reports, that I have been coming across, that are noticing longer performance going with *certain* paint coatings vs *certain* wheel coatings. Heck while one is in there and has plastic/painted wheel wells, clean and coat them, too.

@Fishing, you have no need to worry about coating a wheel, unless it is black. If the vehicle you have in question is a daily driver, chances are that you will not notice any high spots due to some level of dirt getting onto the wheel. In fact, coating a wheel is a great place to start with ceramic coatings because only a certain percentage of the wheel is visible at a given time, so if you mess up, chances are that you will not see the mess up.

Back to topic, if going wheels off, clean and coat everything you can and don`t look back. If you don`t want to spend a ton of money on a coating, look to DPC Shield as it will go on anything but glass and interior, and is $39.00 for 4 floz. You can`t beat that deal unless you want to step up to something like GTech CSL or KAMIKAZE ISM COAT V2.0. The one caveat to DPC Shield is that you will get about a years worth of durability unlike the longer durability of a higher grade coating.
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I am going to agree with you on this. It may be a bit time consuming but coating them is worth it. I have used FK1000 on wheels and was not impressed by it.
 
The Guz said:
I have used FK1000 on wheels and was not impressed by it.
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Ah, interesting! What about it didn`t work for you?

(I`m always curious about applications where it does *NOT* work out...some negative feedback will give me food for thought when it comes to my future recommendations. Lots of variables can factor in, resulting in YMMV!)

I`m still mulling over what to use my 22ple coating on...the S8`s wheels would be easy enough to coat, but it doesn`t get driven enough to justify it. The others just seem too problematic *for me* but I *am* still thinking on it.
 
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