Sport Design Wheel Refurb

[Mja300]

Right guys, after owning my cayman s since January of this year, I am looking at getting the 19" sport design alloys refurbished this summer, possibly by exel.

Now I love nothing more than cleaning my car, but no matter how much i try, i still struggle to reach inside the full depth of the alloy wheels to clean them. Then theres the annoying sticker marks left by previous weights from wheel balancing (this all sounds anal i know!).

So I am thinking that I may get just the inner section of my wheels painted black to mask the dirt i can never reach, and also any future wheel weight stickers. On top of this I also had the idea of amourfending the entrance to each wheel nut, to prevent damage from a wheel brace, as chipped alloy paint from over eager mechanics really annoys me.

Has anyone else done this and if so what was the effect? Or am i just being soft and should just get a straight forward refurb done?

[David Hype]

Black shows the st just as bad as (if not worse than) silver.

Autoglym Intensive Tar Remover will shift the tyre weight adhesive and old stickers. Check out the other winter wheel thread on here regarding cleaning and wax protection...

Getting an individual wheel refurbed is trickly due to paint matching, so get it off the car and clean it properly, wax it up and wait till you have a pair on one side that need refurbing or get the lot done...

Its only money

[SD and P]

Rather than paint the inner surface black you could consider some sort of coating on the newly refurbished wheels whilst they're off.
I had my Cayman detailed and treated with Gtechniq Exo after I bought it last May - brake dust, tar etc. just wipes off the wheels with simple car shampoo and a wool mitt. It is quite extraordinary how good modern treatments are at shedding dirt.

[Mja300]

I was planning on getting all wheels done at the same time, sorry for any confusion on the thread title.

Maybe taking the wheels to a detailer once completed may be the answer then?

Having had new cars with fresh alloys, i know how hard it is to still keep them looking 100% fresh.

[SunDiver]

If you're worried about the inside of wheels, it really doesn't take much longer to take a wheel off with a jack and *properly* clean it, than faff about trying to reach in between spokes and around brakes. That's what I do on a proper clean; can sort the arches out then too. Takes about 40 mins all round - perhaps do it twice a year. Use a torque wrench to tighten back up.

As to black wheels, they show the dirt even more than silver to my mind - get really dull, really quickly.

I find AutoGlym's alloy seal isn't bad at making wheels resistant to stopping stuff getting stuck/baked on.

[pete.g]

I use Collinite 476s on wheels. I've checked the number on the tin - last time I posted from memory and a PH pedant had a snipe.

In any case, remove your wheels, give them 2 coats of this and dirt will wash off very easily.