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Just looking for advice. I’m sure I’ll get flamed but in between hand washes I will use a touchless car wash. I live in Iowa so Spring/Fall can be a bit too cold to hand wash, and I drive my car as much as I can.
Even after the car wash the wheels could use some TLC. What products/process do you use that doesn’t involve dragging out the garden hose/pressure washer?
I touch up my wheels with a waterless cleaner (I use Griot's, but imagine they are all pretty much the same) -- spray it on, let it sit, use a damp cloth and then a dry one. Not perfect, but the wheels look better.
I ceramic coated my wheels and you can literally blow the brake dust off with an air compressor or hit them with the hose and only the toughest spots require a wipe.
For just the wheels you shouldn't need the hose, etc, Just a bucket or two. I never use any of the spray and "wipe" products on anything since I don't like swirling grit around on surfaces.
Rinseless wash or waterless wash are good solutions for wheels and if you have a garage can be a potential solution for washing the car as well. I would just use either of these products with a decent microfiber towel. I’ve been happy with Adams rinseless lately but sure any brand will work
On my other cars (no vette yet) I used waterless wash and wax .. (chemical guys)... I squirt it on a microfibre cloth then wipe the wheels. It cleans them surprisingly well AND waxes them so they don't get as dirty so fast..
If you a Z51, you’ll have more brake dust from their brake pads. For this, you can switch to a low dust brake pad, which will mitigate that a bit.
If it’s just cleaning dirty wheels, perhaps a ceramic coating will help some too.
Yep. Had to clean my 2014 Z51 wheels every ~200 miles or the brake dust not only looked bad it was pitting my balck wheels. After foolishly waiting 6 months I installed Carbotech 1521 low dust street pads and only had to wash the wheels when I washed the car. What little light dust is there does NOT pit my wheels.
Installed Carbotech 1521 pads on my 2017 Grand Sport and my C8 Z51 week 1! Again clean the wheels only when I wash the car.
I gave this a try today. Seemed like what I was looking for...or hell, maybe water and a microfiber cloth would have worked! ;-). Thanks for the suggestion!
Thanks for all the tips abs tricks guys. I’ll look into the brake pads and ceramic coating to fix the “root cause” but so far Griots spray seemed to fix the “symptom”! Appreciate the help! Thanks again.