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Disclaimer:
Although written in the style of an instructional article, the reader should be mindful of their own safety when working on an automobile in the air, automotive chemicals, lifts and jacks.
That being said, I wanted to try Meguiar's Brake Dust Barrier prior to winter and I have documented the process I used. For me it was a two-step process. Step One was using my wife's car as the guinea pig before attempting Step Two, which was working on my own car. You would think with a user name of "WifPd4" the process would be reversed, but trust me before using her car as the guinea pig it received a very thorough and comprehensive detail job including, but not limited to, the very rare act of my performing interior detailing.
In the shop where I rent work space there is a two-post lift, which was busy doing a brake job, so I used a floor jack to remove each rear wheel of her car and clean it and then replace it. For the front I was able to use the four-post lift and it's bridge jack to remove both front wheels at the same time.
I hadn't checked my product inventory prior to starting her car so I ran out of a quality wheel cleaner and used some less effective product to clean the rims. The rims and tires were cleaned, high pressure rinsed, leaf blower dried and then the back side of the rims was mechanically cleaned using a corded drill with a 4" wool ball and some generic metal polish. Her rims were not very clean on the inside after all that work before applying the brake dust barrier. It was after all the guinea pig test project before doing the final project.*
Now after the experimenting with and completing the guinea pig, I went to the store and bought another can of brake dust barrier. I had used a can and 2/3s on her car. Too much. I also picked up some Meguiar's wheel cleaners of various strengths and formulations.
When using chemicals and other potentially dangerous work processes, I recommend safety glasses, chemical resistive gloves, a ground fault interrupter extension cord on your power tools and a review of your car's owner's manual regarding jacking up your car, lug nut tightening torques and tightening pattern. You should also be familiar with using a floor jack and wheel chocks. Also be familiar with your high pressure washer. Avoid pointing it at yourself or using too much pressure and ruining your tires or rims. Work smart, work safe.
I ran the car upon the four-post lift and raised it into the air to adjust and position the bridge jack and lift the two front wheels into the air. However, I wasn't happy with where the jack hit the suspension of this AWD car. I grabbed the owner's manual and found the section for jacking the car. In addition to the four areas the car could be jacked using the manufacturer supplied scissors jack, two locations were shown where a floor jack could be used. I backed the car off of the hoist and found a flat spot in the garage to use the floor jack to remove the two front wheels. After putting a chock under one of the rear wheels, I loosened the lug nuts on the the two front wheels and then jacked the car into the air and removed one of the wheels. The wheels had just recently been rotated by the dealership so each wheel was already marked with it's appropriate location. So I rolled the right front over to the wash bay and started to work.
Following the chemical manufacturer's (Meguiar's) instructions I throughly rinsed the wheel and then sprayed the wheel cleaner on the inner rim and allowed it to soak for a few minutes. Then using my small, but effective, toilet bowl brush I thoroughly brushed the inner rim surfaces. After brushing for a few minutes, I gave the rim another shot of cleaner and brushed some more. I rinsed thoroughly and flipped the wheel over to repeat the process on the face of the rim using a softer brush. After rinsing, I repeated the process using a slightly different wheel cleaner and was more aggressive with the brush on the tire.
The entire wheel and both sides were high pressure rinsed. The wheel was moved off of the floor drain and placed in dry section of the floor and thoroughly dried using a leaf blower. The wheel was flipped a couple of times to insure it was dry before placing it on the rosin paper I used to protect the floor from any overspray.
While that wheel air dried, I removed the other front wheel from the car and began washing it. After washing that wheel and while letting it drip dry before leaf blowing, I started to spray the inner side of the first rim. The spray is light and almost fog like in addition to being in a can that is fairly easy to point and not have too much overspray. I coated the inner surface, a bit too heavily, but not bad. Overspray onto the tire was minimal. I flipped the wheel, being careful not to just drop it to the floor to prevent jarring the fresh coating of brake dust barrier coating. I could see a few runs on the face of the rim, but they seemed to smooth themselves out. I finished coating the face of the rim and returned my attention to blow drying the other wheel. After the second wheel was dry, I took the first rim to the car, mounted it and loosely tighten the lug nuts. I returned to the second wheel, sprayed both sides of the rim and returned to the first wheel and applied Endurance gel tire dressing while the brake barrier was drying on the second rim.
After applying tire dressing to the first tire, I mounted the second tire, loosely tightened lug nuts, applied tire dressing and then lowered the car to the ground. I tightened the lug nuts close to final torque or my best guess since I didn't have a torque wrench.
Moved the wheel chock, loosened the rear lug nuts, and jacked up the car and removed one wheel to repeat the whole process on the two rear wheels.
It should be remembered not to touch the rims while mounting the wheels back on to the car. Any nicks or touching of the drying brake dust barrier will leave a defect in the sprayed product.
The two rear wheels were mounted, car lowered to the ground and all lug nuts tightened in the manner recommended in the manual and to the approximate torque recommended in the manual. I'll do final torque with a torque wrench tomorrow.
The entire process took a bit of time, but I did mess around getting the car into position and jacked up, plus I'm not a speedy worker. The spray can does not list an acceptable or minimum temperature the product can be used, but I was at what I thought was the low end of the scale at 60 degrees. I waited an hour before leaving the building as the outdoor air temp was hovering around 16 degrees Fahrenheit.
The brake barrier can does list several precautions and I was working in a very large room and didn't notice being bothered by fumes. I did notice when flipping the wheel from side to side the fumes had been contained under the wheel and the odor was noticeable when flipping the wheel over and releasing the "trapped" fumes from under the wheel. Using even a cheap dust mask might be a good precaution.
I like the product and an acceptable application is easy to obtain. The finished barrier has a nice shine and is otherwise invisible. Runs, for the most part, seem to smooth out on their own. Any runs I saw after mounting the wheels, I just left believing they would not be visible to most, if not all, folks looking at the car.
The can is small, light and maneuverable making application easy and straight forward. Holding the can is an unacceptable position results in a hissing sound alerting the worker that the can should be held upright. Overspray onto the tire was minimal. I was a bit too generous on my wife's first wheel on the inside face of the rim and when I flipped that side down onto the paper some product ran onto the rubber tire and sort of stuck to the paper. I wiped it off the tire with a rag and it seemed okay. So if you are laying the wheels down to spray them, flip them as soon as possible to insure you don't have product running down onto the tire of the down side.
Yes, I know my car is a hybrid and doesn't really make much brake dust, but I look forward to improving the ease of cleaning the rims over the life of the barrier. The process of removing the wheels is time consuming and if you are only interested in coating the outer face of the rim, it would be a quick and painless process. From what I've seen it is a nice product and I'm wondering if coating the barrier with a quality wheel wax would extend the life of the coating.
This is the practice run with my wife's car, the guinea pig for the process.
Each wheel was removed and moved to the drain of the wash bay.
Each of her wheels were rinsed and sprayed with a generic wheel cleaner and thoroughly brushed with a
solution of Deep Crystal Car Soap.
Prior to washing and brushing.
The tape was used to prevent any runs onto the face of rim from the backside of the rim.
The paper was used to prevent overspray onto the concrete floor of the shop.
The test had been performed on the guinea pig, now it was time move onto the real deal. Temperature in
the shop was around 60 degrees. Using a red laser remote thermometer the surface of the wheels was
also around 60 degrees after washing and blow drying.
First, I was going to use the four-post hoist and the cross bridge jack to remove the front wheels of the
car. However I wasn't happy with the alignment of the jack and the car's frame and suspension.
Following the instructions in the owner's manual, I used a floor jack to raise the front end of the car and
remove the front wheels from the car.
Although brake dust is not typically with a hybrid car as they use regenerative braking from the motor/generators
associated with the hybrid system, I wanted to use brake dust barrier to make it easier to clean the normal
dust and dirt from the rims.
This photo is an "after" of the cleaning process.
The rear end is jacked up and the rear wheels were removed and cleaned in the wash bay.
This is the tires were dressed with gel Endurance. If you look closely at the rim you will see a couple of
runs which disappeared with time.
Finished project. Wheels washed, cleaned, tires dressed and rims coated with Meguiar's Brake Dust Barrier.
End of day. Room temp still 60 degrees while it was 16 degrees outdoors.
Thanks for stopping by.
Meguiar's Brake Dust Barrier is an easy product to use and offers a nice look when
applied according to manufacturer's instructions. Will watch the wheels as time passes to see how long the
barrier holds up to cleaning and Iowa winters. Am considering using a wheel wax on top of barrier to see if
the life of the barrier can be extended on the face of the rim. I don't think I will be removing the wheels anytime
soon to either reapply the barrier or use any wheel wax. I only get this gung-ho every so often...!
Although written in the style of an instructional article, the reader should be mindful of their own safety when working on an automobile in the air, automotive chemicals, lifts and jacks.
That being said, I wanted to try Meguiar's Brake Dust Barrier prior to winter and I have documented the process I used. For me it was a two-step process. Step One was using my wife's car as the guinea pig before attempting Step Two, which was working on my own car. You would think with a user name of "WifPd4" the process would be reversed, but trust me before using her car as the guinea pig it received a very thorough and comprehensive detail job including, but not limited to, the very rare act of my performing interior detailing.
In the shop where I rent work space there is a two-post lift, which was busy doing a brake job, so I used a floor jack to remove each rear wheel of her car and clean it and then replace it. For the front I was able to use the four-post lift and it's bridge jack to remove both front wheels at the same time.
I hadn't checked my product inventory prior to starting her car so I ran out of a quality wheel cleaner and used some less effective product to clean the rims. The rims and tires were cleaned, high pressure rinsed, leaf blower dried and then the back side of the rims was mechanically cleaned using a corded drill with a 4" wool ball and some generic metal polish. Her rims were not very clean on the inside after all that work before applying the brake dust barrier. It was after all the guinea pig test project before doing the final project.*
Now after the experimenting with and completing the guinea pig, I went to the store and bought another can of brake dust barrier. I had used a can and 2/3s on her car. Too much. I also picked up some Meguiar's wheel cleaners of various strengths and formulations.
When using chemicals and other potentially dangerous work processes, I recommend safety glasses, chemical resistive gloves, a ground fault interrupter extension cord on your power tools and a review of your car's owner's manual regarding jacking up your car, lug nut tightening torques and tightening pattern. You should also be familiar with using a floor jack and wheel chocks. Also be familiar with your high pressure washer. Avoid pointing it at yourself or using too much pressure and ruining your tires or rims. Work smart, work safe.
I ran the car upon the four-post lift and raised it into the air to adjust and position the bridge jack and lift the two front wheels into the air. However, I wasn't happy with where the jack hit the suspension of this AWD car. I grabbed the owner's manual and found the section for jacking the car. In addition to the four areas the car could be jacked using the manufacturer supplied scissors jack, two locations were shown where a floor jack could be used. I backed the car off of the hoist and found a flat spot in the garage to use the floor jack to remove the two front wheels. After putting a chock under one of the rear wheels, I loosened the lug nuts on the the two front wheels and then jacked the car into the air and removed one of the wheels. The wheels had just recently been rotated by the dealership so each wheel was already marked with it's appropriate location. So I rolled the right front over to the wash bay and started to work.
Following the chemical manufacturer's (Meguiar's) instructions I throughly rinsed the wheel and then sprayed the wheel cleaner on the inner rim and allowed it to soak for a few minutes. Then using my small, but effective, toilet bowl brush I thoroughly brushed the inner rim surfaces. After brushing for a few minutes, I gave the rim another shot of cleaner and brushed some more. I rinsed thoroughly and flipped the wheel over to repeat the process on the face of the rim using a softer brush. After rinsing, I repeated the process using a slightly different wheel cleaner and was more aggressive with the brush on the tire.
The entire wheel and both sides were high pressure rinsed. The wheel was moved off of the floor drain and placed in dry section of the floor and thoroughly dried using a leaf blower. The wheel was flipped a couple of times to insure it was dry before placing it on the rosin paper I used to protect the floor from any overspray.
While that wheel air dried, I removed the other front wheel from the car and began washing it. After washing that wheel and while letting it drip dry before leaf blowing, I started to spray the inner side of the first rim. The spray is light and almost fog like in addition to being in a can that is fairly easy to point and not have too much overspray. I coated the inner surface, a bit too heavily, but not bad. Overspray onto the tire was minimal. I flipped the wheel, being careful not to just drop it to the floor to prevent jarring the fresh coating of brake dust barrier coating. I could see a few runs on the face of the rim, but they seemed to smooth themselves out. I finished coating the face of the rim and returned my attention to blow drying the other wheel. After the second wheel was dry, I took the first rim to the car, mounted it and loosely tighten the lug nuts. I returned to the second wheel, sprayed both sides of the rim and returned to the first wheel and applied Endurance gel tire dressing while the brake barrier was drying on the second rim.
After applying tire dressing to the first tire, I mounted the second tire, loosely tightened lug nuts, applied tire dressing and then lowered the car to the ground. I tightened the lug nuts close to final torque or my best guess since I didn't have a torque wrench.
Moved the wheel chock, loosened the rear lug nuts, and jacked up the car and removed one wheel to repeat the whole process on the two rear wheels.
It should be remembered not to touch the rims while mounting the wheels back on to the car. Any nicks or touching of the drying brake dust barrier will leave a defect in the sprayed product.
The two rear wheels were mounted, car lowered to the ground and all lug nuts tightened in the manner recommended in the manual and to the approximate torque recommended in the manual. I'll do final torque with a torque wrench tomorrow.
The entire process took a bit of time, but I did mess around getting the car into position and jacked up, plus I'm not a speedy worker. The spray can does not list an acceptable or minimum temperature the product can be used, but I was at what I thought was the low end of the scale at 60 degrees. I waited an hour before leaving the building as the outdoor air temp was hovering around 16 degrees Fahrenheit.
The brake barrier can does list several precautions and I was working in a very large room and didn't notice being bothered by fumes. I did notice when flipping the wheel from side to side the fumes had been contained under the wheel and the odor was noticeable when flipping the wheel over and releasing the "trapped" fumes from under the wheel. Using even a cheap dust mask might be a good precaution.
I like the product and an acceptable application is easy to obtain. The finished barrier has a nice shine and is otherwise invisible. Runs, for the most part, seem to smooth out on their own. Any runs I saw after mounting the wheels, I just left believing they would not be visible to most, if not all, folks looking at the car.
The can is small, light and maneuverable making application easy and straight forward. Holding the can is an unacceptable position results in a hissing sound alerting the worker that the can should be held upright. Overspray onto the tire was minimal. I was a bit too generous on my wife's first wheel on the inside face of the rim and when I flipped that side down onto the paper some product ran onto the rubber tire and sort of stuck to the paper. I wiped it off the tire with a rag and it seemed okay. So if you are laying the wheels down to spray them, flip them as soon as possible to insure you don't have product running down onto the tire of the down side.
Yes, I know my car is a hybrid and doesn't really make much brake dust, but I look forward to improving the ease of cleaning the rims over the life of the barrier. The process of removing the wheels is time consuming and if you are only interested in coating the outer face of the rim, it would be a quick and painless process. From what I've seen it is a nice product and I'm wondering if coating the barrier with a quality wheel wax would extend the life of the coating.
This is the practice run with my wife's car, the guinea pig for the process.
Each wheel was removed and moved to the drain of the wash bay.
Each of her wheels were rinsed and sprayed with a generic wheel cleaner and thoroughly brushed with a
solution of Deep Crystal Car Soap.
Prior to washing and brushing.
The tape was used to prevent any runs onto the face of rim from the backside of the rim.
The paper was used to prevent overspray onto the concrete floor of the shop.
The test had been performed on the guinea pig, now it was time move onto the real deal. Temperature in
the shop was around 60 degrees. Using a red laser remote thermometer the surface of the wheels was
also around 60 degrees after washing and blow drying.
First, I was going to use the four-post hoist and the cross bridge jack to remove the front wheels of the
car. However I wasn't happy with the alignment of the jack and the car's frame and suspension.
Following the instructions in the owner's manual, I used a floor jack to raise the front end of the car and
remove the front wheels from the car.
Although brake dust is not typically with a hybrid car as they use regenerative braking from the motor/generators
associated with the hybrid system, I wanted to use brake dust barrier to make it easier to clean the normal
dust and dirt from the rims.
This photo is an "after" of the cleaning process.
The rear end is jacked up and the rear wheels were removed and cleaned in the wash bay.
This is the tires were dressed with gel Endurance. If you look closely at the rim you will see a couple of
runs which disappeared with time.
Finished project. Wheels washed, cleaned, tires dressed and rims coated with Meguiar's Brake Dust Barrier.
End of day. Room temp still 60 degrees while it was 16 degrees outdoors.
Thanks for stopping by.
Meguiar's Brake Dust Barrier is an easy product to use and offers a nice look when
applied according to manufacturer's instructions. Will watch the wheels as time passes to see how long the
barrier holds up to cleaning and Iowa winters. Am considering using a wheel wax on top of barrier to see if
the life of the barrier can be extended on the face of the rim. I don't think I will be removing the wheels anytime
soon to either reapply the barrier or use any wheel wax. I only get this gung-ho every so often...!
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