Wheels and Tires First - What you need to machine scrub tires by Mike Phillips

[Mike Phillips]

Wheels and Tires First - What you need to machine scrub tires by Mike Phillips


The below is originally from this write-up I did when testing how long the rechargeable batteries for the new FLEX CBEAST

How long does the battery last? 40 minutes - Cordless FLEX XC 3401 aka the CBEAST





How to machine scrub tires using the Cordless FLEX PE14

When I teach my car and boat detailing classes, I do my best to include comedy. One of the long-time jokes I use is that I try to show as many things as possible by MACHINE and the reason why is....

Here at Autogeek... we don't sell hands...


But seriously, I am part machine and I work like a machine and I try to do everything by machine. Love the Cordless FLEX PE14 because it does a dramatically better job of cleaning tires than a human could ever do working by hand. And because it's cordless there is no SHOCK risk and I've been shocked before, so speaking from first hand experience, I prefer cordless over plug-in when working in a wet environment.


Wheels and tires first
Ever since I started detailing cars, that would be before the Internet, I figured out right away the correct order to do clean and wash each area of a car. For me, after doing the 3 messy things, (I teach this in my car classes), the next thing is to do the OPPOSITE of what the major car wax companies tell you to do and instead, I start at the bottom not the top. That is, start with wheel and tires. The order you wash a car is relative - that is it doesn't really matter to the car what you do first, so work smarter instead of harder and after the 3 things that get a car messy start with wheels and tires.





Iconic tires on a classic muscle car but they look kind of dull and boring.





The cordless FLEX PE15 with a 5 AMP battery fully charged and ready to tear into the tires.





Wheel Woolies Black Boar's Hair Wheel Face Brush - if you don't have one, get one and thank me later. Coolest, handiest brush for all kinds of job.





The art of photography....
Holding the camera in one hand while squeezing the spray with the other hand and timing the exact moment to get this type of "action shot".






Yeah buddy....





Have to admit, normally I would hold the FLEX with both hands but in this moment the other hand was manning the camera.







The most awesome wheel face brush...
I teach a lot of classes and one of the things I remind people of is out of all the "things" you do to your car... washing is the most common and most repeated thing you do. So it only makes sense to have GREAT car washing tools and products to make a job I really don't like doing as fast as possible while keeping my results professional quality consistently. Make sense?




Ready to rinse...







Now that's a clean tire.







Final results...
















Here's everything I used....









On Autogeek.com

Heavy-Duty DA Carpet Brush – Long Bristles <-- For tire scrubbing this works best

Heavy-Duty DA Carpet Brush – Short Bristles

Wheel Woolies Boar’s Hair Wheel Brush

TUF SHINE Tire Cleaner 22 ounce

SONAX Wheel Cleaner Full Effect

FLEX PE-150 Cordless Rotary Polisher

SONAX Polymer Net Shield 340 ml

Mighty Mini Cordless Polisher

2 Pack Cyclo Polisher Grey Ultra Soft Upholstery Brush

[sknight1]

I use a cordless drill and this adapter from Griot's Garage: Griot?s Garage Drill Polisher Adaptor Bit

Bought an adapter for each brush to make things simpler/easier.

[UncleDavy]

Cleaning is more fun and interesting when you use power tools. The only suggestion I would make is to park the tire on top of a piece of 1x4 to elevate the tire so you can reach and thoroughly clean the bottom.