What went wrong? Pic's included.

[Darion]

Before this winter I coated these chrome wheels with GTechniq Wheel Armor. They were cleaned, polished, wiped down with IPA and then coated as per the instructions. This car has seen about 500 winter miles and had road salt dust on them and some spotting from being wet. I caught a 40 degree day and figured I would wash the car, this is what the wheels looked like after the wash.

http://i57.tinypic.com/295btom.jpg

I washed each wheel by hand with a micro wash mitt using the soap from the bucket. I guess my expectation was that I would be able to do less work on these wheels after coating but that has not turned out to be the case. The good news is they polish out just fine as can be seen here.

http://i57.tinypic.com/2lmtabq.jpg

Did a small area to see what was going on and at least they will clean up.

So where did I go wrong? Or did I just have an unreasonable expectation of what this product would do?

Thanks for the feedback and if ya have a better option for my needs with these wheels let me know!

PC

[chris11le]

It almost looks like something greasy/oily/tarry?

I have C5 on my G37 wheels and most stuff just washes right off. Thats why Im thinking its a sticky material on yours that just kind of smeared.

Can you tell how the stuff "feels" on there?

[Mike Phillips]

I don't think I've ever seen anything like this happen before in my life?


:dunno:

[cleanmycorolla]

Yeah man, what did you drive through, that looks like tar.....

[parttimer]

I don't think I've ever seen anything like this happen before in my life?


:dunno:

That equals not good!

Will they polish back out?

[chris11le]

That equals not good!

Will they polish back out?

Check the lip of the wheel at 12 o'clock in the 2nd pic. He said it comes off with polishing.

Im calling it tar-like and it just smeared on the surface. The C5 probably is making it easier to come off than if it were on an uncoated wheel.

[trekkeruss]

Weird to say the least.

[1kwikf]

is it aerosol tire shine or similar? Ive had something like that happen when my wheels were hot.

[parttimer]

Ah I see, pretty dark to tell. Do they apply that brine stuff on your roads before they ice? I think that is mixed with some sort of syrup.

[TundraPower]

I don't think I've ever seen anything like this happen before in my life? :dunno:

(If that doesn't make you panic I don't know what will.)

Get some CarPro Trix and see what happens?

[Darion]

Hi all, thanks for the replies!

Answer to a few questions
-What does it feel like, thin, almost chalky.
-I don't believe its tar because it appears to be white to off white in color.
-I don't think its tire shine or similar. I have been using the same tire product for years and never had anything like that happen.

Actually I'm wondering if its not from the liquid de-icer they sometimes spray on the roads. They don't just use salt anymore, when it gets real cold and they have fear of icing they will use this liquid stuff. Well at least its just the wheels, the paint washed off fine but for some small specs or road grime that stuck on.

Here is a pic of the one wheel I have polished, took about 20 minutes.

http://i61.tinypic.com/2v1l0e1.jpg

So, I'm gonna guess polishing the wheels will remove the Wheel Armor, any suggestions on a wheel sealant for my application??

Thanks all,

PC

[TundraPower]

So, I'm gonna guess polishing the wheels will remove the Wheel Armor, any suggestions on a wheel sealant for my application??
Thanks all,
PC

On the bright side at least it's fixable. Hooray! I'm not a GTechniq fan. 22PLE is my favorite coating.

[Darion]

On the bright side at least it's fixable. Hooray! I'm not a GTechniq fan. 22PLE is my favorite coating.

22PLE huh, what do you like about it and what makes it any better than the others? I looked it up and it looks similar to what I just used. Does get good feedback. Feed back please

[chris11le]

22PLE huh, what do you like about it and what makes it any better than the others? I looked it up and it looks similar to what I just used. Does get good feedback. Feed back please
Id be more interested in 22PLE longevity on wheels vs GTechniq wheel armor, which is *supposedly* made specifically for wheels.

I can tell you 3 years after coating 3 of the wheels on my then brand new car with Gtech C5 (mostly as an experiment to see when the 4th wheel is visibly different), the 3 coated wheels still come 90% clean with a blast of water and some car wash soap. The 4th wheel requires elbow grease and still doesnt look nearly as good. Car doesnt get driven much (10K miles on it) and is garaged most of the time, but 3 yrs of time is a valid test I would think.

[Darion]

Id be more interested in 22PLE longevity on wheels vs GTechniq wheel armor, which is *supposedly* made specifically for wheels.

I can tell you 3 years after coating 3 of the wheels on my then brand new car with Gtech C5 (mostly as an experiment to see when the 4th wheel is visibly different), the 3 coated wheels still come 90% clean with a blast of water and some car wash soap. The 4th wheel requires elbow grease and still doesnt look nearly as good. Car doesnt get driven much (10K miles on it) and is garaged most of the time, but 3 yrs of time is a valid test I would think.

Thanks for the feedback. I think I will just clean, polish, prep and re-apply again. Last time I used a 50/50 IPA mix, I'll go over each wheel twice before applying this time and see how it goes.

Thanks,

PC