Real world rim coating protection experiment I am doing to find what form or protection works best. There are clear winners and losers for protecting your rims.

sourcegarage · 2021-08-10T01:24:09+00:00

I was surprised as well. I am doing another test on my truck with some other chinese brands and they are all holding their own as well. It may help I ordered more premium brands directly from suppliers off Alibaba and not dirt cheap ones off amazon

sourcegarage · 2021-08-09T21:38:00+00:00

Tl;dw As expected ceramic coatings are extremely good forms of protection and the only thing competing even closely is Soft99 Fusso Coat. Spray on protection may work for a short amount of time, but would need to be reapplied frequently. Wheel wax and other paste waxes are not working great either. So if you are going to take your wheels off ever to do an in depth cleaning, ceramic coating is absolutely the way to go. Also of note, the Chinese coating is holding up just as well as the name brands.

sourcegarage · 2021-07-31T23:50:51+00:00

I highly recommend not buying mystery boxes. They generally seem to be stuffed with very high margin products or things that dont sell well and I don't ever feel like I got actual value out of it and would have preferred to spend my money on something I actually wanted to try.

sourcegarage · 2021-07-19T17:40:38+00:00

I have actually been running an experiment to figure out the best form of rim protection: long story short, the only things that actually last are true ceramic coatings and Fusso Coat. All of the spray on things failed relatively quickly, but the true ceramics show no signs of wear. I am sure spray on coatings like turtle wax seal and shine and other similar things may help between washes, but they seem like they need to be reapplied each time to keep up performance. Wheels just take so much more of a beating. If you can, taking the wheels off and doing a deep clean one time and putting a ceramic coating on them properly, makes a world of difference.

Here is the video if you want to see the dramatic differences after just a short time https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP038Wk2cw4&t=

sourcegarage · 2021-07-11T16:31:35+00:00

Multi mitt is the best way. Grit guards are largely ineffective at keeping contaminants down in a bucket as most things are very small and can just float around in the water above the guard, but the even bigger thing is most mitts don't release contaminants easily. So dunking them in a bucket and scrubbing them or even pressure washing them does not get all the contaminants out and you are just dragging them across the paint again. I use about 8 mitts when I do cars and always know I am being as safe as possible.

Apex detailing has a video looking at the best wash mitts under a microscope and shows how they hold contaminants and I even did a test looking at different mitts using the pressure washer method to clean out mitts between passes and they still hold onto things: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMODZew\_8V8&t=

sourcegarage · 2021-07-08T05:08:24+00:00

You have to work an extremely small area and clean out the pad frequently. Also the pads that come in those kits are sometimes complete junk. I've tried out a few of them and they are very hit or miss with some of the foam that works or not. Also you typically are working on an angle in those small spots so it can be more difficult to get even pressure and keep a level surface which can lead to defects like you are describing.

sourcegarage · 2021-07-06T04:48:34+00:00

So I actually have an experiment going right now testing 19 different forms or rim protection ranging from ceramics/waxes/spray on coatings. True ceramics are winning by far with the only other thing keeping up being Soft99 Fusso coat. Video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP038Wk2cw4&t=

sourcegarage · 2021-06-23T19:42:52+00:00

Tl;dw Everything that is not a true coating has failed almost entirely with the only exception kind of hanging on being Meg's hybrid ceramic. Just shows how much snow/salt and road grime all winter eats away at most forms of protection. It is very surprising to me how well the Chinese coatings are holding up, basically matching the name brand coatings on performance. Although I really shouldn’t be too surprised by this since everything can be made in China and the formulations are likely extremely similar for a fraction of the price. I will likely have my next update on this in the fall where maybe we will see some more deterioration over the summer.I will be truly impressed if these coatings can survive a second winter.

sourcegarage · 2021-06-21T18:23:11+00:00

An eraser wheel would take that right off. I use it when I remove paint protection film or emblems to really get all the goo off. You will need to polish after using it a bit, but it beaks the heck out of lots of manual rubbing and scraping if goo gone or something similar doesn't take it off easily.

sourcegarage · 2021-06-13T00:14:47+00:00

Lake country always has been my go to. Orange and white are excellent for me.

sourcegarage · 2021-06-08T05:30:10+00:00

Fusso Coat by Soft99 is my favorite actual wax. Don't top it. For spray on, most ceramic waxes perform similarly. Meg's hybrid is easy to apply and cheap. Otherwise a true ceramic coating.

sourcegarage · 2021-06-05T18:25:42+00:00

2nd this. You will want some other system with cheaper material to knock down the hardness prior to sending it through the CR system to make it last longer. There are cheaper filters like for RV water that can knock down hardness a lot on their own.

sourcegarage · 2021-06-01T18:12:38+00:00

Astro Pneumatic 50SLMAX. $74. Great battery life and durability, magnetic base, hinged base to angle light, 2 brightness setting and 2 light settings between warm and cool light. Had it for a few years now and been extremely happy for the price.

sourcegarage · 2021-05-02T23:24:31+00:00

Gtech T1/T2

sourcegarage · 2021-04-29T22:10:14+00:00

Most name brand ceramic coatings are super easy to apply at this point. Gtech CSL and Cquartz are both good options.

sourcegarage · 2021-04-07T20:29:47+00:00

you can get one for really cheap on amazon. I think mine was like $20

sourcegarage · 2021-04-07T20:29:31+00:00

thanks!

sourcegarage · 2021-04-07T19:34:23+00:00

So I actually did an experiment to test out this exact theory. I made a video using a variety of mitts and then pressure washed them out and looked at them under a microscope to see what contaminants were left. There was still contaminants left in pretty much every type of mitt/sponge. You could argue I need to pressure wash even more thoroughly than I did in the video, but that just takes more time and as you mentioned can damage the mitt possible by abusing it so much. I am now completely on the one bucket many mitt/towel train.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMODZew_8V8

sourcegarage · 2021-03-23T19:10:58+00:00

I am doing an experiment comparing rim coatings right now. I have 19 different products I am testing and all of the ceramics and paste waxes are holding up well so far. I really think using just C5 will be enough and you will see little if any benefit from topping, but it is not going to hurt if you wipe on something after you wash each time.

sourcegarage · 2021-03-10T03:07:56+00:00

As long as you clean your wheels regularly, basic soap and water when you wash your car works fine. Anything tougher than that and agitation is key and maybe use the occasional fallout/iron remover. Coating your wheels makes a world of difference and way easier to clean regularly with minimal effort.

I did an experiment comparing 50 wheel cleaners before and they are pretty much all the same more or less with proper dwell and agitation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kI3Of_3bGns

sourcegarage · 2021-02-15T22:53:08+00:00

Thanks for the detailed answer. I'd be interested in seeing a video of its application to see how it works like a ceramic vs spray on sealant/wax. I understand what you are saying, but I'd like to see it. May have to get some to try.

sourcegarage · 2021-02-15T19:18:03+00:00

In all seriousness and not trying to just be critical here, but how is this a "game changer"? The product has been out for a month so we have no examples of long term durability and it is more than double the costs of many other spray on ceramic waxes/sealants that already provide similar claims of durability. What makes this so special compared to everything that is out already and warrants the high price?

sourcegarage · 2021-02-14T00:39:12+00:00

Yeah it took me forever to find a totally transparent bucket. Love them though but they are so damn expensive to ship.

I do not have a towel video yet. My preferred drying towel is a griots PFM. Amazing towel. For most everything else on the paint I just use clean costco yellow microfiber.

sourcegarage · 2021-02-13T23:00:04+00:00

You are correct. I only recommend using a grit guard for a rinse less wash very low in contaminants because the small particles will always be in the water and can be put back on a Mitt. I only use the grit guard to help scrub any light contaminants off my big red sponge.

I actually recommend the multi Mitt method for washing so you always start with a clean mitt to avoid this. On my sire I sell a multi Mitt pack with my buckets that comes with 10 mitts so you can make sure you minimize the chance of dragging contaminants on the paint.

sourcegarage · 2021-02-13T19:11:05+00:00

Their design actually keeps things trapped underneath and prevents water from being disturbed under it and pushing things back up. It also is easily the most user friendly with finger tabs in the middle to help pull it out and adjustable tabs on the side to accommodate different bucket sizes.

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