Dressing/coating fabric wheel well liners

[itsgn]

Hi Everyone!

What's the best product to dress or coat fabric-like wheel well liners? And what do you use to apply them uniformly, yet preferably sparingly to the surface?

I'm interested primarily in restoring a darker - preferably black - color tint to the well, like what classic tire dressings and plastic restorer products (like Meg's Ultimate Black or CarPro PERL) do. It's a plus if the product also offers some level of hydrophobicity and/or dirt repellency, but as said, the top priority is getting rid of the ugly greyish/faded color of the wheel well.

As always, thanks in advance for your expertise and suggestions!

[Eldorado2k]

You mentioned Perl. Have you tried spraying it in there? Seems like it should work. I use Hyper Dressing.

[itsgn]

I didn't try anything yet, because I figured, that if I use the wrong product, that for ex. gives me uneven coverage or doesn't darken the color much, but will bond to the liner, I will have a hell of a time correcting that, with the fabric now loaded unevenly with a dressing that will likely repel any new product I might want to try. So, I'd prefer using straight out the right product for the job, if there's one.

[fightnews]

I've used sonus trim and motor coat in the past but IDK if it would darken the fabric. Does anyone even know what type of fabric that is? You might want some type of fabric dye first before using any type of protection product.

[tofuproductions]

You mentioned Perl. Have you tried spraying it in there? Seems like it should work. I use Hyper Dressing.

Thank you for this. I have an abundance of this at home. Can you please share the dilution ratio, if any and if you haven’t already? My LS has fabric like wheel liners and would love to clean them up.

TIA.


Sent from my iPhone using TapaTalk.
LS 460 “Burnt Toast”
S2000 “Banana Boat”
600RR “Orange Chicken”

[The Guz]

My dad's car has the carpeted wheel liners. What I do is use some APC into the wheel wells and agitate with a brush. Follow that with a strong blast of water to remove as much dirt as possible. I do take a brush into them to agitate anything loose prior to doing this and use the same brush to agitate the APC while it is dwelling.

I typically leave them alone at this point. In the past I have used 303 Fabric Guard and that worked ok.

https://www.autogeek.net/32ozsize.html

[Eldorado2k]

Thank you for this. I have an abundance of this at home. Can you please share the dilution ratio, if any and if you haven’t already? My LS has fabric like wheel liners and would love to clean them up.

TIA.


Sent from my iPhone using TapaTalk.
LS 460 “Burnt Toast”
S2000 “Banana Boat”
600RR “Orange Chicken”

I just spray them with diluted APC [D101@10:1] and rinse off with the hose 1st. Then I finish them off by spraying Hyper Dressing @1:1 when I’m passing by dressing the tires after the wash. Perl basically works the same as Hyper Dressing so I’d go 1:1 spray and walk away.

[itsgn]

I ended up using PERL in 1:2 dilution. It seemed to work well. It darkened somewhat the fabric (albeit not as much as solid plastic trim), and seemed to provide good coverage when spread with a foam applicator pad after spraying the product directly onto the fabric. Obviously I could not buff off excess product and/or spread it out more evenly with a towel (didn't even try, as the fabric would have just ruined it, without the towel even having a chance to do anything useful). Will see how the result actually affects repellency, and whether it will age uniformly, or get "patchy" with time or something.

Thanks for the tips.

[Eldorado2k]

There’s no real need to spread it as it self levels. 1:1 would’ve got you better darkening.

[itsgn]

You must have a different type of PERL than I do, because mine doesn't "level" itself, not even on a solid plastic surfaces, and leaves streak marks if not spread/wiped even with a MF towel. And the wheel well fabric is 10x worse, because it's not a smooth/solid surface, and because of that, even thin stuff doesn't spread much on its own on the liner, not even on fully vertical segments.

Also, I didn't use 1:1, because I wasn't sure whether I could get even coverage, and the darker the results would have been, the harder would it have been for me to correct or mitigate the unevenness afterwards. It seems fairly good as it is anyway, so it would have been mostly just a waste of the product.

[Eldorado2k]

You must have a different type of PERL than I do, because mine doesn't "level" itself, not even on a solid plastic surfaces, and leaves streak marks if not spread/wiped even with a MF towel. And the wheel well fabric is 10x worse, because it's not a smooth/solid surface, and because of that, even thin stuff doesn't spread much on its own on the liner, not even on fully vertical segments.


I do have a different type of Perl, it's called Hyper Dressing. [emoji6]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/0a58c24bf54c154bd9b9ad2a69fd2358.jpg

And when sprayed onto the surface..

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/b63d2fc82275c23759d8ead93b5e2ff9.jpg

It self levels.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/554e00c1d46763266a3d4a4d36a8628d.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/26b6137c65487ea345a7f01c509f5511.jpg

These RV tires were sprayed and left to self level. This used to be my preferred method for all tires using Hyper Dressing 1:1.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/e3c7c002622288b1cd35290bbf2f1ee2.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/9e847f50020bbb20a1082214d0725ce8.jpg

Works the same way in the fabric wheel wells of my Kia. I wasn't aware Perl wasn't able to do it.. I guess I have another reason to keep it on the shelf. Lol.

[Eldorado2k]

I’d be willing to bet some OTC Tire Foam would do the job as well. Just a hunch..

[Eldorado2k]

I went outside and tried the tire foam inside the Kias fabric wheel well..

Before:

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/37435a8ffd8a67f889198e30378ca192.jpg

I only had very little left in the can.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/898dce6216e6bebeaf86df86b731662e.jpg

3min. later. Not bad. Would’ve been better if I hadn’t ran out.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/ccb2ef656380a15a7b16bfc352079ad8.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/9bb61b0d5819d8b47ffdb9157b62278a.jpg

[Eldorado2k]

And here’s the other side..

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/fa95202a5b2bdad2e30f11a5c4af9426.jpg

Hyper Dressing @1:1 sprayed onto a dirty wheel well and left to self level.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/d13be2587670e55641b35b5dc3f7b962.jpg

About 10min. later.. It’s just about finished self leveling. Not too bad at all.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/2b281c9ef374ef6657b4e196adeff12a.jpg

You can see how it darkened compared to the area I didn’t spray. This is @1:1. This was just a quik spray inside a dirty wheel well.. Looks much better when properly done.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180130/d127d2d3e06101a2f38fe833d2eaec85.jpg

P.s. Don’t complain if you try using it @4:1 like alot of people do and don’t get great results. Lol.

[DBAILEY]

I would think that a lot of dirt/dust to collect into a fabric wheel well that was saturated by sprays of Hyper Dressing. Wouldn't? It is like a coarse thick felt.

Maybe going the same route as a fabric convertible top cleaner and protectant would work, but that area must get abused. The protectant probably would not last very long.