Winter Arch Wash & New Wheel Reveal

A wheel change this time of year often means safe sensible winter items to bear the brunt of upcoming nasty weather but for me mid-November seemed like the perfect time to plonk a new set of showy 20 inches on the Nismo because if I'm going to get stuck in the snow or sideways in the wet I want to at least look good doing it. So as much as I wanted to rush outside with my new rims like a kid at Christmas there was a bit of pre-fitment cleaning that had to be done as housing brand new items in neglected unwashed arches just didn't seem right so got to work jacking the car up and removing the factory raised rims one by one so I could give the areas behind them a good going over with my pressure washer and long reach brush. Although they looked pretty manky most of it was thankfully superficial but there were some stubborn tar spots present from our recently half-arsed resurfaced roads that I wanted to at least reduce in number and while I wouldn't be cracking my crevice tool out to vacuum the rear carpeted ones like I did last year still didn't want to be transporting half of autumn around with me so plan to at least give them a good scrub to remove the worst of it. Now I know you're all desperate to see the new wheel reveal but let me just jump in quickly to tell you about a company who not only supported this video but also changed how I fuel myself when I'm out and about. So not having time to properly eat during a long day of detailing but being relatively health conscious I still want to try and ensure I get what I need to keep me going and that's where YFood and their tasty balanced meal replacement drinks come in. 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There's five main varieties to choose from which can be had separately or a convenient taster pack plus two additional plant-based options and although the drinks are the most popular you can also have powdered form if you fancy mixing your own or chewable bars if you prefer some good old mastication but all gluten and lactose free rich in fiber and contain up to 26 vitamins and minerals so check out the link in the banner description or ping comment below if they tickle your stomach's fancy and get 10% off with the code gooten. Belly sufficiently filled for the next three to five hours then I went about removing two of the 20 millimeter spacers that I'd only recently put on as the new rims have a different offset and the fronts at least would stick out too far with anything more than a five millimeter jobby so until I could saw some of those these had to go. Once they were out the way the plastic line front arches were treated to a thorough pre-rinse with the pressure washer to remove the loose stuff then subsequent pre-spray with some all-purpose cleaner applied via a precious sprayer to hopefully make light work of anything the water alone couldn't and while that was all soaking in took the opportunity to give the painting caliper a quick once over with a super soft shampoo prime unsurprisingly it's far easy to access with no wheel in the way. The all-purpose cleaner was then agitated and worked into the black plastic liners suspension components and other parts of the arch with both a relatively soft bristled long reach brush that's handy for all sorts of detailing jobs and a good old bendable easy detail brush. With it being a low mileage car there wasn't too much ingrained dirt to deal with but it still made sense to give everywhere a good once over before fitting the new shoes much like how you'd scrub your own cracks and crevices in the shower before getting suited and booted. Once all areas had seen a thorough agitation then the arch was rinsed out again to remove the suds and freshly dislodged dirt before moving on to the next stage of the download decontamination. A potent torn adhesive remover was then generously applied to all areas of the inner arch to break down and dissolve the most stubborn and arguably unsightly part of the decontamination which given enough time to soak it generally does well. Now for an area like wheel arches a brush is more effective at removing softened up tar spots than a towel especially on the annoying seams that they seem to soak into and stain but because I didn't have any I was prepared to sacrifice at this particular time as they're never quite the same afterwards went in with a general purpose towel instead. When working on the main black plastic liners you obviously can't properly see the tar however you can feel it so it's simply a case of working the towel over the surface until it no longer catches on the sticky spots underneath a bit like when clay and paint work. To help remove any lingering tar dissolving product once it had been thoroughly wiped in the arch was foamed over and left to soak for a minute or two before being rinsed off as it's a good way to give everywhere one last contactless clean plus it's just satisfying to see an area like an arch that isn't usually maintained to the extent the exterior of a car is dwelling in something like snow foam. The final part of the spruce up for the front arches then was a generous spray over with a water-based dressing to quickly restore some factory sheen as well as add some superficial protection and I like to apply a product like this while the surface is still wet and then let it air dry naturally for a nice uniform finish. As you can see it leaves a pretty consistent look to all areas of the inner arch and while it won't last a great deal of time assuming you reapply now and again when maintaining the rest of the car should technically stay looking clean and presentable indefinitely. With the front arch out the way I moved on to the back which unfortunately meant replacing the wheel I'd previously removed as I couldn't manage to get all four off the ground in one go but the new ones hadn't arrived yet so refitting the factory race rims after each arch clean actually served to keep the weather out of them. Now while carpeted arch liners like these help to deaden road noise and protect the panels behind from damage they also attract and grab onto far more dirt than plastic liners do which can make cleaning them a bit of a ball ache. So a pressure rinse was first undertaken to remove as much of the loose dirt and vegetation as possible and saturate the carpeting to help evenly carry any cleaner subsequently applied through its fibres. Once sufficiently wet all areas of the arch were liberally sprayed with the all-purpose cleaner used previously and again once that had been applied and while it was soaking in the canoper was given a quick tickle with a sunstub soft brush. The same long reach brush used on the plastic liners up front was then used to rough up these carpeted ones and hopefully release as much of the entwined bits of dirt as possible while the easy detail brush was again employed to access the non-carpeted areas around the I once I felt everywhere had seen an adequate amount of agitation with the different bristles gave the arch a thorough rinse out with the pressure washer. The few non-carpeted parts of the arch unfortunately hadn't escaped the tar spots and so were liberally sprayed down with the potent citrus based product to dissolve them before being wiped over with a towel. Again I wasn't looking to completely decontaminate and detail the arch to absolute perfection but rather smarten it up enough so that if you can see any parts through the new wheels they'll at least look presentable but unless you're going to remove the liners for a full behind the scenes clean then going any further than this with them in place is arguably a bit futile. One last snow foam was then undertaken for the same reasons as before and once it had been applied and left to sufficiently soak in was thoroughly rinsed off making sure everywhere had seen a really good going over as I likely wouldn't be getting in here with the washer to this extent again anytime soon. The non-carpeted parts were then finished off with the versatile water-based dressing to give them a bit of sheen and help detract the eyes away from the bits I'd inevitably missed and again after being applied it was simply left to drip dry to give a nice uniform finish. Obviously everything I've done here was repeated for the other side and while I didn't film it for obvious reasons hopefully you get the idea. So I think considering for the time of year that the car lives outside and how the arches were beforehand they now look presentable enough and for anyone watching that might be wondering why you bother cleaning areas like these it's only a waste of time if you never touch them again. Yes they'll inevitably get dirty quite soon after but most of that will be superficial so assuming you give them a bit of a pre-spray pressure instant re-spritz with a dressing or protectant every once in a while should stay looking relatively clean. The exterior of the car was then given a quick contact wash as although I didn't know exactly when the wheels would be arriving at this point knew that when I had a weather window to fit them didn't want to be doing so on a dirty car however exterior washing wasn't really what this video was about so we'll have to leave the rest to your imagination. A day or so later then I just about had the new wheels and their battered boxes in my possession after I'd rescued them from the back of a subcontracted Scally's white van who I'm pretty sure after pretending to leave them outside a random house at the end of the street for his last delivery of the day was actually trying to nick them but that's just what happens when you live on Merseyside. The packaging was pretty pathetic as well with all of two farty little pieces of bubble wrap having been lazily dropped over their faces which for me was just a perfect representation of the standard UK bare minimum will do loser mindset. Still despite the attempted theft and half-arsed packaging the wheels had somehow survived their journey of doom and for the most part were in decent filmable condition so could finally crack on with fitting and showing them to you. I didn't want to give the finish of the 20 inch Junt T3 25s away just yet but you can probably tell that aside from looking slightly more aggressive the split spoke design and overall look wasn't too dissimilar to the factory 19 inch raised wheels. Now I don't profess to be an expert wheel fitter so work with the slide forward on your backside while resting the rim on your toes technique which right or wrong work quite well and laying small general purpose towels over the calipers and disc edge to prevent any damage from cack-handed dinking certainly helped relieve the Once they'd been secured with the comically undersized generic nuts then it was finally time to reveal the flash candy red. If I wasn't a YouTube VIP looking to put his motor on the map might not have gone for a statement colour like this but regardless reckoned the time with the other factory red Nismo bits and they certainly served to brighten up the current sorry state of affairs. So while the wheels could have been simply fitted straight away and regularly maintained from there on because I had a day or so in limbo waiting for the weather to dry up after receiving them it made sense to do a bit of a strip and protect jobby in the meantime. So the Potenza tyre walls were first treated with an aerosol silicone remover designed to rid paintwork of polish and product residue but here was employed to eat through any unsightly tyre soap and strip back any other grease and residue from the manufacturing and handling process instead. After the rubber had been worked over with a downgraded general purpose towelette the painted face and barrel of the wheel was given the same treatment with a slightly fresher pair of towels to similarly ensure there was nothing on that before a protectant was applied. Once all areas of the new wheel had been fully stripped back and any residue from the residue remover had flashed off let it breathe for a minute or two before going in with a fresh towel spritzed with the last coat ceramic spray protectant that had featured on my uncle's boxed earlier in the year to seal and protect it through the coming winter months and boost its factory shine as believe it or not there is such a thing as better than new. Now I'm well aware there's more durable and dedicated products out there designed to protect wheels long term but nothing that you can realistically apply outside in a matter of minutes and because these wheels will be regularly maintained from the second the fitted don't necessarily need something permanent so a few layers of a spray coating like this was more than enough. It was simply sprayed directly onto one towel gently wiped over the surface in a methodical manner to ensure even coverage inside and out then buffed off with another towel to leave a nice slick residue and high spot free finish. It was then just a case of dressing the tyres which was easier to do here than on the car so got to work with some silicon dioxide based geon tyre and a sponge applicator. Now while this particular dressing is generally a bit too glossy for my liking it is a high quality product and considering it was going onto brand new naked rubber would have a better shot at keeping it looking fresher for longer than say something water-based. After an initial sponge application I had to finish off with a brush as the sponge was struggling to spread the thick product but once it had been sufficiently worked in with the bristles instead was left to soak for a few minutes before being buffed over with a general purpose towel to remove any excess and leave a nice rich semi-gloss finish. Although I've only shown one here this process was obviously repeated for each of the other three wheels which was actually undertaken in the relative comforts of the kitchen the night before. So with all the prep work now pretty much complete and the subsequent fitting shots having already been shown all that was left to do was grab some final after shots while there was still a bit of low-lying sun in the sky. So while these 20-inch items aren't forged like the factory 19-inch raised rims they certainly make more of a statement on the street and once properly spaced with the car dropped some better nuts colour-coded or black weights instead of the unsightly silver ones and perhaps some contrasting coloured callipers as I think the red on red is potentially a bit too much should be quite the sight to behold for a Nissan. I'm sure there'll be plenty more to come with these new bad boys in the not too distant future but hopefully that little lot's got your attention for now. Either way thanks for watching as I was in two minds about sharing their edition as firing the camera up always seems to summon the law of the sod to spoil the fun which it very much did here but still the safe in situ now so let me know Red Light District or Candy Cane Lane.