Pic drive - Sealant

[James.Q]

Would washing alloy wheels with an acid based cleaner have a detremental effect on the sealant on a pic drive? I've been around to inspect drive and faded areas correspond where wheels would be, and have been told by a nieghbour that this happens frequently. if so are there any tests availiable to prove this without involving the nieghbours? any advice would be gratefully accepted James ???

[lutonlagerlout]

my pal uses a special cleaner for his honda super sporty number and he informs me that the stuff is phosphoric acid
LLL

[RAPressureWashing]

Would washing alloy wheels with an acid based cleaner have a detremental effect on the sealant on a pic drive? I've been around to inspect drive and faded areas correspond where wheels would be, and have been told by a nieghbour that this happens frequently. if so are there any tests availiable to prove this without involving the nieghbours? any advice would be gratefully accepted James ???

What acid is in the cleaner? also what is the sealent acrylic or poly?

[RAPressureWashing]

my pal uses a special cleaner for his honda super sporty number and he informs me that the stuff is phosphoric acid
LLL

If they are alloy wheels then yes phosphoric acid, it is an aluminium cleaner

[James.Q]

so would this bugger up the sealant? not sure of make polly or acrlic would it make a differance?:(

[TheVictorianCobbleCo]

By virtue of the fact that you see four discoloured areas that match the size car tells you that the cleaning agent has at least settled on the sealant skin of the PIc, and quite likely attacked the skin and affected the surface of the concrete. To establish whether the PIC surface is affected, a dissolving solution on the sealant will remove the sealant and leave thePIC of a uniform colour. My bet is that if the cleaning agent is strong enough to clean the rim, then as sure as god made little green apples, its attacked the sealant. Ask/buy some wheel cleaner and clean an unobstusive corner of the PIC, check a day or 3 later, QED.

[Edgecraft]

Hi james

If it's a PIC drive then it will almost certainly be Acrylic sealer as it is used not just as a sealer but also a colour enhancer (I use virtually the same method as PIC on my extruded edging),
also i've seen this sort of marking on loads of PIC drives I have cleaned and re-sealed.
I would ask the owner what they have been using to clean the wheels with and if they have any you could have to test on a descreet area as suggested by "tvcc" (to prove that it's of their own doing).
If you have been asked to repair it, I would use some xylene thinner to clean the affected patches then re-seal it with Acrylic (either matt or Gloss to match what is already on).

Darren

[James.Q]

this is one of my jobs customer was insistant on a pic drive but after working for a firm that did pic and block the amount of hassle with pic i tried to talk them out of it. but because i had done alot of work in this area i foolishly gave them the number of a team i knew did quality work. but they seem to think a bit of concrete with a sealant will look like new forever:( its been down for over two years and they have already had a re seal . and i have only just found out about wheel cleaning . ive been told he cleans car more than i have hot baths:)

[Edgecraft]

Hi James

I think I would be straight up with the customer and explain that the only way to be 100% sure if his wheel cleaner is the culprit is to do a test patch, but at the end of the day it's wear and tear of some sort and not a fault with the drive or it would be all over it !

Darren