Coating a set of Cosmis Hyper Bronze Racing Wheels! Yum yum...

[Mike Phillips]

Coating a set of Cosmis Hyper Bronze Racing Wheels! Yum yum...

My co-worker and good friend Andre, (also my assistant for both our Competition Ready Detailing Classes and Marine Boat Detailing Classes), recently purchased some Cosmis Hyper Bronze Racing Wheels for his Toyota Supra.

He brought two of them into work to show me and said he wanted to coat them before installing them on the car. (He's going to bring the other two in tomorrow).

Asked me if I wanted to do it and use them for a how-to article and I said, sure!


Now these are some really cool looking wheels. The Hyper Bronze finish is nothing short of eye candy for your car. Andre had already washed them front and back so they were clean from the get-go.

Now before I show you the simple process I used, let me share why to apply a ceramic coating to nice wheels like these especially when they are new and especially if you like a clean and shiny car, (including the wheels).

First - Applying a ceramic coating to your car's wheels is NOT going to prevent brake dust from getting on them.


Then you say...

Huh? I thought that's the key benefit to applying a ceramic coating to wheels - to keep them from getting a build-up of brake dust?


Wrongo


Think about how many times you HIT THE BRAKES when you drive your car? Even running to the grocery story...

Nope... your wheels are still going to get covered with brake dust. The real benefit is imagining some sort of invisible force field surrounding your wheels.... the REAL benefit is how fast they wash and dry.

You see a quality ceramic coating is going to create a dirt repelling surface. It's going to be harder for the brake dust to stick or form a bond to the layer of ceramic coating on the surface. It will still build up it just won't stick or at least stick very well.

So when you go to wash your car, and for me this means when I go to wash the wheels and tires first because that's what I practice and that's what I preach, the majority of brake dust will rinse off with a strong blast of water. Antyhing left will come off simply by agitating with a quality brush like the Wheel Woolies Black Boar's Hair Wheel Brush and any quality wheel cleaner or even car wash soap.

Of course a ceramic coating will help to prevent the build up of brake dust from happening as fast as it normally would if there were nothing on the wheels but the honest and true benefit isn't brake-dust free wheels - it's fast washing and drying to restore the surgically clean appearance of your wheels. And if your wheels have a shiny finish, (some do some don't), then a quality ceramic coating will amp up the gloss and shine imparting a glassy look.

So that's the real deal with coating rims. In my opinion, if you like a clean car and you are prone to wash your car often to keep her shiny then you're a candidate for coating your rims.



Step 1: Even though Andre washed the wheels and tires before bringing them to work, they could still have gloss enhancers from the car wash soap or other films on the surface that could hinder a proper bond between the wheel finish and the ceramic coating. So to chemically strip the surface without harming the finish I'm using BLACKFIRE Crystal Coat Paint Prep with a clean microfiber towel.






Technique Tip
In my Competition Ready Detailing Classes I teach how to use ceramic coatings using the Buddy System. Of course this only works if you have a buddy around to help. If you don't you can still use the technique I show with two people but do it all by yourself.

This technique is to chemically strip the surface twice. The first wipe is using a heavy or wet spray of your choice of product to remove any residues or substances off the surface. The second wipe is to use less product as an Insurance Wipe. This second wipe insures you didn't miss anything. You need less product because if you're doing the first wipe right you've probably removed everything.





With a high quality finish like Cosmis Racing Wheels, do use clean, high quality microfiber towels s you don't accidently scratch the finish. It would be less expensive to purchase a new wheel then to monkey around trying to fix a scratch.














The BLACKFIRE Crystal Paint Prep leaves a clean, streak free finish perfect for applying a coating over.





Wheel Barrels
Of course Andre is a clean-freak so he asked me to get behind the face of the wheels and get the wheel barrels. This will make cleaning the back of the rims with a Speed Master Wheel Brush or a Wheel Woolies Wheel Brush faster and more efficient







NOTE: The key to keeping the back of the wheels just as clean as the front is to clean them every time you wash the car. Light build up is easy to remove. Years of neglect will mean removing the wheels.





Step 2: Apply a ceramic coating to the wheels. I'd recommend hedging your bet and use one that states that it is specifically made for wheels for all the work, time and energy that goes into a project like this. For these Cosmin Racing Wheels I'm using the Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Wheel Coating

Mist a little product onto a foam applicator and then apply and work the coating over all prepped surfaces of the rim.





Safety Tip
I'm not a chemist and I don't know what is in all these ceramic coatings flooding the market but take the extra pre-caution of wearing some nitrile gloves.

We sell these heavy duty orange gloves on Autogeek.com so next time you place an order for anything add a box of these gloves to your order and stick around on Earth for a while.







Repeat the process to the wheel barrels.















Step 3: After about one minute, use a clean dry microfiber towel to remove any high spots and give the rim a final buff.






Repeat the above steps to all wheels.
















And.... wow!

These Cosmis Hyper Bronze Wheels look incredible!
















On Autogeek.com


Pinnacle Black Label Diamond Wheel Coating


BLACKFIRE Crystal Coat Paint Prep


Wheel Woolies Black Boar's Hair Wheel Brush


heavy duty orange gloves

[Eric@CherryOnTop]

Awesome article! I really hope we are gonna get to see a pic of these once they are on the Supra!

[VISITOR]

very nice, i bet those wheels and tires weren't cheap...

[lane5515]

Thanks for the great write up Mike!

If someone uses a wheel cleaner such as GG HD Wheel Cleaner or McKee's Foaming Wheel Cleaner Gel on coated wheels, will those products remove or reduce the life of the wheel coating? I know such chemicals shouldn't be needed on coated wheels but I'd like to know if they will hurt the coating.

[The Guz]

Great write up. The wheels look great.

[Cruzscarwash]

Whoa, whoa, whoa, you cant say he drives a supra and then not show it

Sent from my Pixel using Autogeekonline mobile app

[craigdt]

Whoa- you had me at "Supra". Let's see the rest of it!

[Angus]

Very nice. We have to see a picture of them mounted on the Supra next!!

Good looking gloves you got there too

Did this tire get mounted backwards on purpose? Or is Andre trying hid the " Falken" logo? Is there no way of safely removing the paint?

[Aaryn NZ]

"Wrongo" Mike, I think you just invented a word. I like it.

Nice article Mike, great Technique Tip with the double wipe & "Insurance Wipe" - it just makes sense. You don't really want to cheat when applying coatings, this is a fantastic tip indeed. Boy oh boy are they some smart looking rims. Timeless style too, they could work on old school or new.

Aaryn NZ.

[Mike Phillips]

Thanks for the great write up Mike!

If someone uses a wheel cleaner such as GG HD Wheel Cleaner or McKee's Foaming Wheel Cleaner Gel on coated wheels, will those products remove or reduce the life of the wheel coating?

I know such chemicals shouldn't be needed on coated wheels but I'd like to know if they will hurt the coating.

That's a good question and I think there's two parts to the answer. Just a disclaimer beforehand, I have not used the Griot's Garage Heavy Duty Wheel Cleaner but I have used the McKee' Foaming Wheel Cleaner Gel a lot. So as of this reply, I'm not sure how strong of a cleaner the Griot's Garage product is but my guess is because it has the Griot's name on it regardless of how strong it is it's completely safe a that's how Richard and his team roll.


Part 1: Technically, when properly applied a quality ceramic coating becomes a functional part of the surface it's applied to so it doesn't wear off like other protectants. In the case of wheels, other protectants could include a wheel wax.


Part 2: Nothing lasts forever. (not even you or I).


With my long background of answering questions for OCD people on the Internet going back 23 years now, when it comes to some topics I've learned to put the question in to extreme contexts mostly to make a point. Like this,


Will washing a coated wheel with a strong wheel cleaner make the coating last longer? The simple answer is no, see part 2 of my answer above. Then let's ask the question, what's the opposite word for the word longer.


My experience with my own car is I'm a true believe in wheel coatings for painted wheels. I have not owned chrome wheels and coated them to see what happens over time. I do own aluminum wheels but have not used them and thus have not coated them to see what happens over time. I have coated the painted (factory clearcoated Mercedes-Benz wheels with a wheel coating and watched it's performance over time). And my experience is the time, energy and investment required to properly clean and coat a set of nice wheels or "rims" is worth it like I stated in my first post you're the type of person that likes a clean and shiny car.

A quality ceramic coating will make washing and drying your car's wheel faster and easier.

Also like I stated and stressed above, a quality ceramic wheel coating will NOT prevent brake dust from building up on the wheel, (both outside and inside). Brake dust is going to build up. It's a given. (unless you wash your car/wheels daily). The BENEFIT to a wheel coating is it makes removing the brake dust (and road grime), faster and easier no matter how you wash them.



How's that?