Sealing rims and the back not being clean all of the way

[Peanuthead]

Thinking or sealing my rims before it gets really cold and I don't think that all of the crud on the back side of the rim will come off, but I haven't tried yet. Is it a bad thing to seal the rim and not have everything off of it? I'm mainly referring to the cracks and crevices on the back side.



Lastly, any reason why Optiseal (2 or 3 coats) won't stand up to the 4 months before I wash the back of the rims again?

 

[Accumulator]

No idea about the Optiseal, never tried it. If I had to *guess* I'd say it won't last that long. I would find *some* way to at least do a half-@$$ed cleanup of the back sides at every wash, it can't be all *that* hard (well, OK, most of my wheels are pretty easy to reach back there, but still....).



Just do what you can, both the prep and the upkeep. Something is better than nothing.



IMO sealing imperfectly prepped wheels is better than not protecting them at all. You can always pull 'em off and do a better job come spring, but at least they won't take quite as much abuse with something on them. I sincerely doubt that most people (even here) really do a 100% job on the back sides...easier said than done and many wheels aren't finished all that well on the back sides anyhow.