Nanolex Premium Sealant on Wheels

[Dave KG]

Following on from an impressive performance from Nanolex Basic Sealant on paintwork in terms of ease of use and water behaviour, I had very high expectations of the Premium Sealant - and thus far I have not been disappointed! The Basic Sealant I have on durability test right now and it is performing just as strongly just now as it was a month a go at application, but its early days and I'll post up an update soon.

The first outing from the Premium Sealant for me was to try it for durability assessment on my Volvo's wheels... this year the car is likely to average about 30k miles, so it is a serious challenge of the products durability!

Preapplication was cleaning with Bilberry, Claying with Meguiars Mild, cleansing with Meguiars Deep Crystal Stage 1 and then wiping down with IPA for a completely clean and bare surface on which to apply the sealant - I wish to assess the sealant's performance here on its own on a well cleansed and IPA'd surface.

Application was easy -spray onto a microfibre, wipe onto the spokes of the wheel first and then buff off any residue with a second clean microfibre. Then do the flats of the wheel in same way, each wheel taking little over a couple of minutes to fully apply one layer of the sealant too. The car was then left in the unit for 12 hours as stated in the instructions before being driven... Owing to the weather, the wheels did not see rain for about three days after application

The application took place a week ago, and yesterday the wheels were cleaned - couple of hundred miles of brake dust... Cleaning was simply a case of foaming the wheels with Autobrite Supa Snow Foam, agitating with a brush and rinsing and all brake dust swiped off the wheels with great ease A first plus for the sealant - easy cleaning!

I then assessed the beading and water behaviour on the wheels after cleaning, here to check for differences as one indication of protection a long with the squeak test... Beading assessed here also as its fun to see A couple of pics of the water behaviour on the wheels:







Impressed with the tight little beads that I notice most other wheel-specific products lack...

Water behaviour videos:







Again, a week after application this proves to be very impressive offering fast sheeting and tight beading I normally only associate with a wax... while this is not an indicator of protection level, I confess myself a fan of the water effects from a purely cosmetic point of view which is why after trialling sealants last year I have returned to waxes for my paintwork... Nanolex seem to have engineered a product capable of wax-like beading and with a claim of extreme durability (which is currently being tested), which seems to compare the best of both worlds from this point of view.

Initial impressions - application, while easy, was a little "strange" compared to the more traditional Basic Sealant in that it can be a little harder especially on a light colour, lying down, to assess if you have full coverage... But trust your instincts in application because it only needs a very small amount to be applied to work very well, and speed of applciation with the wipe on, wipe off is very quick indeed.

Performance looks very strong - very easy wheel cleaning and cracking water behaviour impresses from the off... now we just need to see how long one layer of the sealant lasts, if the Basic is anything to go on, I am expecting a strong performance. Another impressive show from Nanolex

[Avanti]

Another quality review pioneered on the DW forum

[Bigpikle]

great stuff Dave

I'm sure I'll end up with one of these sealants on my wheels soon as well. Look forward to the updates.

[ianFRST]

awesome, ive never really been into sealing / waxing alloys, but this product looks top notch!! might have to invest

[Dave KG]

Originally Posted by ianFRST

awesome, ive never really been into sealing / waxing alloys, but this product looks top notch!! might have to invest

Give it a go, makes cleaning them so much easier for me... just go over them with my wheel brush while the foam is dwelling on the paint, dead simple and no need for specialist wheel cleaners.

[Epoch]

I have a similar test running on half of one wheel on the wife's car, I'm only a few weeks in, but as you Dave it does offer some super beading and sheeting.

Nice test

[supercharged]

sounds like one heck of a durable sealant. And it looks promising. Hey, Dave, how do you manage to get 30k miles in a year? Do you drive from one of a country to another? Seriously? I drive to work 50 miles a day, and use a daily driver for all other little needs and only get around 15k miles a year...

[Dave KG]

Originally Posted by supercharged

sounds like one heck of a durable sealant. And it looks promising. Hey, Dave, how do you manage to get 30k miles in a year? Do you drive from one of a country to another? Seriously? I drive to work 50 miles a day, and use a daily driver for all other little needs and only get around 15k miles a year...

I do essentially go up and down the country - travelling to detailing meets, all the miles are for pleasure and enjoyment so I dont mind

[Nanolex]

Dave, thank you very much for sharing your experiences so far in form of such an intensive writeup! You know that I really appreciate that you (and all others who already did share or maybe will share their experiences) take your time for doing this!

Great vids and pics!

I'm looking forward to reading about your long term results, you definitely made my day,

Cheers,

Florian

[supercharged]

Originally Posted by Dave KG

Give it a go, makes cleaning them so much easier for me... just go over them with my wheel brush while the foam is dwelling on the paint, dead simple and no need for specialist wheel cleaners.

I see...in that case you might be going through 2 tanks of fuel a week...or if that is diesel, you might get away with one...
Anyway, please keep us updated with durability on that sealant, it really looks promising...