WHEEL ARCHES
Care
The arches on any car have to be one of the most neglected area’s second only to the underside of the vehicle. This is down to the fact that most of the time the wheels themselves cover the bulk of the arch and so they are more ‘out of sight, out of mind ‘ .
However that does not get away from the fact that once properly clean, they can benefit the overall appearance of the car and are easier to maintain. In addition total cleaning time is only about 30 minutes per arch and so does not take too long for a great end result.
What to use
When you take off the wheels, you will be presented with the usual mess of mud encrusted arches with fading trim.
I will detail in a separate section, the method for effectively treating and painting your calipers. This section covers just the arches.
The most effective tools are Meguiars Super Degreaser ( cut to a ratio of 4:1) , a selection of scrubbing brushes, a bucket of soapy water and some elbow grease !!
Meguiars Super Degreaser P21S Total Auto Wash Meguiars Microfibre Washmitt Sill Brush Standard Scrubbing brush
Cleaning the Arches
Firstly using a pressure washer or powerful hose, hose down the whole arch paying attention to the top of the suspension struts, springs, down between any arch liners and in all the crevices. Once fully soaked and all the majority of the mud and grime has been removed, spray on the Meguiars Super Degreaser. Be pretty liberal with this stuff getting into all the places you have just hosed down.
Unless your arches are in good condition, you will need to agitate and scrub everywhere to really loosen the encrusted grease and muck. In my experience, the best method is to hose, spray, scrub and then hose once again. That way you can see at a glance just how much is left and if you need to repeat the process.
Before
Once the arches are clean , allow to dry and then you can dress the arch liners which are usually in a plastic trim material. The best treatment for this is either a Vinyl Dye available from Halfords and other high street stores or a good coating of black bumper gel. This will stain the vinyl and leaves a pretty good surface.
Apply this with either an applicator pad or old bit of sponge. I always have some cheap jumbo sponges to hand which I tear off into sizable chunks ready for jobs like this as they get thrown away afterwards.
After
Finish
Once all the arches and trim have been cleaned and dressed you can take this opportunity to decide whether they need painting and also if you have Mud-flaps you can also treat them to some bumper gel or sealant to bring them back up to scratch. I take this chance to inspect all the suspension, springs and strut-braces for any sign of damage.
If you would like to download all the information
contained in the WHEEL ARCHES guide, simply click on the link to the right. It is in PDF format.
