# Wheel arch detail



## spyder (Jun 15, 2010)

Hi Mike,
can you give some advice on detailing wheel arches ? I find this job to be quite tricky. Maybe you can shed some light on the various processes used to clean and protect this area? Thanks for your time.


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

I actually don't do a lot of this type of detailing, that is if you mean inside the the fender area surrounding the wheel and tire.

*When I have done this I tend to like to remove the wheels to make it easy to get into these areas.*

Most of the cars I've owned are either classics or hot rods or big trucks as that's what I like to drive and getting the wheel wells clean is usually part of a restoration process.

For customers, I focus on paint polishing, it already takes a long time and it's the important part. The wheel wells are just going to get dirty again as soon as you drive the car in the rain.

The last set of wheel wells I cleaned were easy to get to and easy to clean, they were on Behemoth... I used *Easy Roll-Off* to clean the frame and fender wells.

*I did this in April of 2010*

*To say it's big is an understatement. Here's Dave's Kodiak parked next to a 1964 Ford Falcon and the Kodiak Truck dwarfs this full size Ford passenger car.* 









Due to it's size it's parked out side, exposed to the coastal weather here in Florida where even though it has a very new single stage paint job, the boat yard is a busy place with sand blasting and painting a common duty performed and this means Dave's truck is exposed to a lot of air borne overspray and contaminants.

We're going to start with washing Dave's Kodiak and we can safely feel the paint and check for Above Surface Bonded Contaminants.

*Washing, claying and waxing a truck this size is a little more difficult than a normal car, truck or s.u.v., luckily we have the right tools to do the job safely.*






















































*After washing, I drove the Behemoth into the studio where I can dry it with some waffle weave drying towels and then inspect the paint for above surface bonded contaminants.*









Ready to dry and then clay the paint. After washing I felt the vertical surfaces, (haven't got up high enough at the time of this post to feel the horizontal surfaces), and there's definitely above surface bonded contaminants, my guess is some overspray paint.

If you're reading this and you have never used detailing clay before, here's a video on how to use detailing clay to remove above surface bonded contaminants.

*How detailing clay works and how to use detailing clay your car's paint*

*To remove above surface bonded contaminants, we're going to use Detailer's Pride Universal Clay Lubricant and DP Universal Detailing Clay.*









*After claying just the hood here's what the face of the clay looks like...*









*Before moving on to any more panels, it's a good idea to fold your clay into itself and then re-knead the clay into a new clay patty...*









*Now you're ready to get back to claying...*









*On the top of the fenders, I found small rust spots which could be some type of metal particulates...*









Here's a close-up... there are a number of ways to tackle metal particles embedded in paint, for this project we tried claying and it appeared to remove the clay particles to the paint the rust stains were gone and the paint felt smooth and glassy.









*As I moved around the truck I also found the plastic lens on the tail lights had a rough feel to them so these were also clayed. You can clay any surface that's smooth like paint, plastic, chrome, stainless steel and glass for example.*









We're finished claying and ready to move on to the next step...









Claying restores smoothness to the paint surface and gloss comes from smoothness, as you can see below the paint is now uniformly glossy over the entire truck.









The process was simple but the results were phenomenal and best of all, the paint on this massive truck is now protected from the harsh environment it's exposed to every day. I'm confident we'll see this truck in the future and we'll have a chance to monitor how well the protection is working.

The paint on this truck was sprayed around December or 2009, it was never sanded and buffed and for these reasons it had no tracers or pigtail sanding marks to remove nor any machine inflicted compounding swirls, except for Above Surface Bonded Contaminants a little staining and oxidation, the paint was in excellent condition but it has never been properly sealed.

Detailer's Pride has introduced a brand new polymer paint sealant called Poli-Coat Paint Sealant, this new sealant is,


One Step Polish and Sealant
Anti-Static Polymer Formula
Resistant to Alkaline and Acidic Cleansers and Detergents
We're going to apply this new sealant using a Griot's Garage Random Orbital Polisher and a new Lake Country Crimson Hydro-Tech Pad on about the 4.0 Speed Setting.










*The DP Poli-Coat Paint Sealant is a fairly thick product compared to other sealants...*









*After massaging the paint with this new sealant look out the sealant has spread out to cover the entire face of the pad, this happens with other machine applied paint care products too...*









*The sides were easy but the higher section required the use of the ladder and even a Skyjack Scissor Lift.*



















This truck was used in a recent video we shot with Oley, the President of the Flitz Metal Polish Company and I used some of the products and techniques he shared in the video to finish off the chrome on this truck.

The Flitz Metal Polish not only restores brilliance to faded, stained chrome but also leaves behind a protective coating. Using the Flitz Buff Ball took all the work out of the job.









Detailer's Pride has recently introduced a new and improved version of their Gloss Tire Gel and we had a chance to use a beta sample on the huge tires on this truck...

*Before*









*After*









*Some after shots...*





































*Here's what it looks like from the driver's seat, I took this picture as I drove the truck around the building while taking some pictures. It drives easy, just like a normal truck with plenty of power and a great view of the horizon!*













































*Time to turn the keys back over to Dave, the man behind the machine...*









*Thanks Dave!*


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

*Short answer...*

Get some brushes, a good all purpose cleaner and if it's real important to you then remove the wheels and tires so you can more easily access the wheel well area.

:thumb:


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## spyder (Jun 15, 2010)

Thanks Mike for fast reply :thumb:


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## Mirror Finish Details (Aug 21, 2008)

That is a cool truck, love it.

You can forget your poxy sports cars that is the dogs danglies.

When we get to Texas later this year I feel a monster truck will soon be on my path.


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

Mirror Finish said:


> That is a cool truck, love it.


It's fun to drive around but expensive. After detailing it and maintaining it for the owner he now lets me borrow it anytime I want it. I used it for an episode of the TV show and I'll probably borrow it for at least one day at DetailFest.

I've had a couple of big trucks but nothing like this Kodiak.

PJ from Dodo Juice checked my truck out when he was here last, I think he liked it. I like it, it's got a lot of power with a 454 Big Block Chevy.


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## ChrisD (Mar 7, 2009)

Mike, any reason the '2nd' wheels on the rear were not dressed with tire shine? i personally think that it lets it down visually seeing it not done. 

Fantastic truck though! :thumb:


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

ChrisD said:


> Mike, any reason the '2nd' wheels on the rear were not dressed with tire shine? i personally think that it lets it down visually seeing it not done.
> 
> Fantastic truck though! :thumb:


Good eye and great question...

To be honest, the only way to really do a good job would be to jack up the truck, remove the wheel and then a person could do a "good" job of dressing the tire.

This is a "Daily Driver" and while I really like Dave, (the owner), except for washing it, he isn't going to maintain this truck like one of us.

In this particular detail session, I started "after work hours", so I had already been at work since early that morning, and I didn't finish and leave for home till long after midnight.

Since the first time, I've detailed it again and it was super easy but I still only dressed the outer tire of the dually tires in the back.

Sorry if I let you down mate... but after re-looking at my own pictures that show the truck from an angle, you're right, the dull, gray look to the face of the outside of the inner tire doesn't look as good as the outer face of the outer tires.

Tell you what though, next time I detail this truck... I'll be sure to get the face of the inner tires...

:thumb:


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## Defined Reflections (Jun 4, 2009)

I dont think ive ever seen a truck like that! i will never moan about range rovers again  very nice work aswell!


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## GolfFanBoy (May 23, 2010)

Wow, that's one big truck :doublesho It certainly made the arches easy to clean though. Great job :thumb:


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## Leodhasach (Sep 15, 2008)

I love that truck! I don't suppose you have any technical information on it, or links about it?

Also, it's good to see you on DW. I recently bought your 'How to use the PC for Showcar Results' DVD and I really enjoy it 

Thanks,

Andrew :thumb:


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## Mike Phillips (Jan 26, 2007)

Leodhasach said:


> I love that truck! I don't suppose you have any technical information on it, or links about it?
> 
> Also, it's good to see you on DW. I recently bought your 'How to use the PC for Showcar Results' DVD and I really enjoy it
> 
> ...


Hi Andrew,

Here's a short video clip I took with my iphone and some information... I call the truck *Behemoth* in any of my articles if that helps you with searching...

*Behemoth - 2004 Custom Kodiak Truck*​




This is my friend Dave's 2004 Custom Kodiak Truck, he's a fabricator and he started with a Kodiak Cab and grafted in the center section of a 1996 Chevy Van between the front and rear of cab portions of the cab to create a custom stretched truck cab. 

6.6 Duramax Diesel Engine.

Allison 1000 Series Transmission.

New Process 273 Transfercase.

15000 Ramsey Winch - Front.

10000 Winch - Rear.

3 Fuel Tanks, Two 60 Gallon Tanks and One 50 Gallon Tank.

Rear Bed is 2007 Chevrolet Dually Pickup Bed - this is a Dump Bed and a Roll-back Bed.

As for the DVD it's hard to believe that DVD has been around since 2006... man time flies when you're having fun...

First, when we arrived and looked at this car while it was parked in the garage, the finish looked really nice as does the overall car.



















However, after asking the owner/restorer to drive the car out into the sun where we can better see a more accurate representation of the true condition of the paint, here's what our camera captures...


















































































Note: I have no part in the sales of this DVD and haven't since late 2005 or early 2006 so I just want to make sure that's understood so no one thinks I have a vested interest in selling it as I don't.

It's 2.5 hours long and goes into great detail how to work by hand or with a dual action polisher. It's also the only DVD like it in where we started with a completely swirled out finish and worked all the way through the process to restore a swirl-free show car shine.










Even received an unsolicited testimonial from Pete Santini



> "With 30 years of Custom Painting and being in this industry I have found out that you should always be open to learning new things to stay competitive. Mike's DVD and knowledge of polishing is a tremendous asset to my detailer, teaching him techniques that even I didn't know. I recommend this DVD to anyone wanting to better their abilities"
> 
> Pete Santini


Pete Santini is a famous custom car painter in SoCal...


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## kempe (Jan 9, 2011)

I've seen bigger :lol:


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## Leodhasach (Sep 15, 2008)

Hi Mike, 

Thanks for the quick reply and the information!  That truck is a beast. The person I bought the DVD from is knowledgeable about the history of it and explained how you no longer played a part in distributing it yourself, which I probably should have mentioned. It does look like it was a fun project though!

If you ever get the time, a rotary polishing DVD would be great 

Cheers,

Andrew


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