Tires or wheels first?

B

Brunkel

New member
What does your typical wheel cleaning process look like? I'm most interested in where people put the tire cleaning into the process. What I've been doing so far is this:

1. Blast tires and wheel wells with APC on foam spray
2. Agitate wheel wells and tires with designated brushes
3. Rinse (I'm thinking I can save this till after the wheels and just do one rinse for everything?)
4. Apply wheel cleaner (Sonax Full effect or Adam's Deep wheel for dirty wheels, Adam's Green Wheel cleaner for moderately clean wheels)
5. Agitate with various brushes and wheel woolies
6. Rinse
7. Dry with Metro Blaster Sidekick (or air dry if I'm going on to other parts of the car)
8. Once dry apply tire dressing (Adam's Super VRT)

For my car when my wheels are decently clean already, the normal car wash and agitation with a mitt works fine!
 
If I am using an APC (BLACKFIRE APC) I will do them together.

If I am using a dedicated tire cleaner/wheel cleaner AND the wheel cleaner is designed to be used on WET wheels, I will do the tires first (thus wetting the wheels when rinsing the tires off). I find that TUFF SHINE Wheel Cleaner works best on dry tires.

If I am using a wheel cleaner designed to be used on dry wheels (something like Iron-X) I will do that first.
 
Todd Helme said:
If I am using an APC (BLACKFIRE APC) I will do them together.

If I am using a dedicated tire cleaner/wheel cleaner AND the wheel cleaner is designed to be used on WET wheels, I will do the tires first (thus wetting the wheels when rinsing the tires off). I find that TUFF SHINE Wheel Cleaner works best on dry tires.

If I am using a wheel cleaner designed to be used on dry wheels (something like Iron-X) I will do that first.
Click to expand...

Ah yes, I forgot to mention when I used the Adam's Deep Wheel it suggested on dry wheels so in that case I did wheels first :)

Any need to rinse, then move on to tires/wheel wells or is it OK to let the agitated product sit on the wheels for a bit while you APC the tires and wells and then rinse everything together?
 
For my own cars, I rinse the wheels, tires and wheel wells......spray the wheel and tire with my cleaner, let dwell. Clean tire first, the the wheel...if the wheel well needs it, I do it last, then rinse everthing.....move on to the next.
 
07gtcs said:
For my own cars, I rinse the wheels, tires and wheel wells......spray the wheel and tire with my cleaner, let dwell. Clean tire first, the the wheel...if the wheel well needs it, I do it last, then rinse everthing.....move on to the next.
Click to expand...

About the same for me...expect I do the wells first, then move to the rim, then the tire...I do these one at a time to make sure each is as clean as it needs to be.
 
I am an avid Tuf Shine user, tire cleaner, brush and sealant. The cleaner does work best on a dry tire. I then hit my Opti Coated wheels with Mothers Foaming All Wheel and my Wheel Wooliies. Don't forget the power washer.

Works like a charm.
 
I find that I do the wheel first, notwithstanding the choice of tire cleaner. For whatever reason I have always done it this way, and since I'm not a professional, I can allow personal preference to creep into my routine.

Also, most of the time only one wheel cleaning is needed, however multiple tire cleaning sessions may be needed to produce "white" rather than "brown" foam.
 
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