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The drexler ceramic goes on pretty easy. The barrels of the wheels aren't smooth painted so it took a little more elbow grease to get the material off. You have to know what the temperature of the material is as it determines the cure time. If you get that wrong it won't come off easily. That being said, my wheels were at 59 degrees F today (I have an IR thermometer). So the cure time was 7 min. Really happy with the results. The same thing applies if you do their paint coating to the car as well.
Can you explain what is meant by "get the material off"? The instructions online only say to apply a few drops to the cotton pads provided, and apply to the wheels. No instruction on technique, following up with another cloth, or anything else. It does mention the cure time based on temperature, but that is all. Are you saying it took 'elbow grease' to get the ceramic material to transfer from the pad to the wheels, or something else?
So it's simple - apply, wait, buff off. I apply the material in a cross-hatch pattern to ensure uniform coverage. The elbow grease was just on the barrels and was during the step after curing.
So it's simple - apply, wait, buff off. I apply the material in a cross-hatch pattern to ensure uniform coverage. The elbow grease was just on the barrels and was during the step after curing.
That's all quite helpful info, thanks for the reply.
stillwater, any reason you went with Drexler over competing wheel coating products e.g. the Adam's Polishes ceramic kit (I do see that kit is $130 so maybe I just answered my own question)?
Also, in your post-treatment photo it looks like the wheel is covered in specks of dust or cloth fibers or something of the sort when I zoom in...is that something that wiped off after the photo was taken or is whatever I'm looking at cured to the wheel?
I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but TireRack now has the 2018 S4 option available for tire and wheel packages. I just picked up a package with 18x8 MSW Type 71 in machined grey shoed with Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3Ds. They should arrive Monday.
8x18 wheel with ET35 on 5-112. They came with a fitment kit to have the correct bore and also come with new lugnuts (so now I have a cardboard box of Audi ones and plastic caps)
Tires are Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 245/40 R18 97V XL BSW
Looking at the wheels, you don't think they will clear the front brakes, but the wheel sucks itself in on the inside to provide surprisingly good clearance. When fitted, I was able to fit my fat fingers comfortably between the front caliper and wheel. I tried to take a photo to show it so that everyone reading this can be confident that there is good clearance:
The wheels look fine on the front:
And the rear looks good too:
The ET35 fits the wheel well comfortably, with good clearance, and the wheels do not have a "pushed out" look from the rear:
8x18 wheel with ET35 on 5-112. They came with a fitment kit to have the correct bore and also come with new lugnuts (so now I have a cardboard box of Audi ones and plastic caps)
Tires are Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 245/40 R18 97V XL BSW
Looking at the wheels, you don't think they will clear the front brakes, but the wheel sucks itself in on the inside to provide surprisingly good clearance. When fitted, I was able to fit my fat fingers comfortably between the front caliper and wheel. I tried to take a photo to show it so that everyone reading this can be confident that there is good clearance:
The wheels look fine on the front:
And the rear looks good too:
The ET35 fits the wheel well comfortably, with good clearance, and the wheels do not have a "pushed out" look from the rear:
Hope that helps! Happy Winter motoring to all!
Nice. I'm looking at those rims also but in black and for running just my all-season's that came with the car. How does it ride/any difference in feel? Since the rims are ET35 vs ET40 notice anything different in feel? The others I was looking at were the Hartmann ones (#3) that look like the OEM's but they are ET32...wasn't sure if they were going to look pushed out at that offset since it's 8mm more then the ET40 & most things I've read said don't go more then 5mm from factory offset.
How does it ride/any difference in feel? Since the rims are ET35 vs ET40 notice anything different in feel?
It felt a bit spongy when I started driving, but considering I had 19" wheels with Sport Contact 6 tires, I am not surprised and was expecting a softer ride. With new tires I won't know the lateral grip limits, but naturally expect them to be less in the dry. Steering-wise and track-wise I feel no difference at this point.
We had some light hail a few days ago where I live, and the 19" summer tires did not do well on the residue of ice/slush, so I am glad to have these on now, just in case!
It would be kind of embarrassing to wreck a $60K car for the sake of $2K of wheels and tires, or get stuck as a Subaru on all-seasons trundles by...
10-16-2017, 10:06 PM
