life of brake dust barrier

[79elcamino]

how long will multiple coats of BDB last before it is completely removed from the rims?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

Multiple coats? I don't really know. But a "typical application" - ie, you simply follow the directions on the can - will last a whole lot longer than you probably expect.

Here's a personal experience (sort of an accidental test) that actually shocked me, for a couple of reasons:

I was recently given some TRIX to try out recently and was looking forward to using it. Like IronX it is supposed to be safe on all surfaces, including bare metal, so I figured it would be perfectly safe to use on my aftermarket wheels. These wheels have been cleaned countless times over the years with both Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner and even Wheel Brightener, and I've never had even the slightest issue. So certainly TRIX wasn't going to be a problem now, was it? The directions say to leave on the surface for as long as 5 minutes, but I only left it on for 3 minutes, max. I then lightly agitated and fully rinsed the wheel and, to my horror, I saw heavy white staining on the wheel!!! I rapidly went from being shocked, to being angry and then even a bit sad. As I got down for a closer look I noticed something very odd - the staining, which looked exactly like what you expect to see with an acid based cleaner being sprayed onto a bare metal wheel, only appeared on part of the wheel, and it stopped in a very abrupt line, as if part of the wheel had been masked off with tape. And that's when it hit me: It had been masked off with tape - a year previously!

Going back that year, I was testing Brake Dust Barrier several months before we introduced it at SEMA. My car doesn't emit a ton of brake dust so I wasn't sure if it was going to be the greatest test for this product, but I needed to try it out anyway. So I taped off half the wheel and applied BDB to just that one half. Like I said, my car doesn't present a real problem with brake dust, and I'm more than a bit particular about how I maintain it so there's never a real build up anyway. But this tape line, from a year prior, was exactly where the "staining" from TRIX stopped dead. That told me that TRIX had not stained my wheel at all, but had actually stained the BDB coating only. And that coating was a full year old! I hadn't really expected that at all. Of course the only way to remove the staining was to remove the BDB, which involved spraying some fresh BDB onto a microfiber towel to soak an area, then wiping it onto the wheel to break down the existing coat and remove it. It worked, the staining was gone and the wheel looks like nothing had ever happened to it.

Knowing that I had another wheel half coated with BDB I intentionally tried to duplicate this issue, and the exact same thing happened with the other wheel. Both the appearance of the staining and the subsequent clean up. Since that time I have cleaned both of those wheels with Wheel Brightener and have seen zero problems. There has been no damage to the surface of the wheels themselves, so it was definitely just a case of TRIX and BDB not getting along. In all honesty, it is incredibly rare that we find this situation, where two products "react" in this way even though it's a common misconception among consumers.

Please understand that this is not a negative comment about TRIX in any way, shape or form. The product itself performed exactly as advertised and did everything I expected it to. Just don't use it if you've got BDB on your wheels, even if you applied the BDB a year ago!

[smack]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

Thanks for the insight Mike. That BDB sounds like some serious stuff. I havent tried it yet.

[79elcamino]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

thanks, yea i tried to removed BDB with goof off cause i had missed some water and it ran and left a white streak going down the rim and the goof off did remove the BDB but it made my rim look like it had clear coat failure but its just the BDB missing in that area so i sprayed BDB back the wheel and now it looks horrible, thats why i wanted to know how long it lasts cause i was gonna wait for it to be removed on its on, so i can remove the BDB with BDB and a towel??

[Murr1525]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

Well, I think to remove on purpose you want some alcohol.

I think to try and keep it on that you want to apply more and work it in well, try to combine it back together and let it resettle. Would have been the original idea for the white streak as well probably.

[79elcamino]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

.

Well, I think to remove on purpose you want some alcohol.

I think to try and keep it on that you want to apply more and work it in well, try to combine it back together and let it resettle. Would have been the original idea for the white streak as well probably.

Of course the only way to remove the staining was to remove the BDB, which involved spraying some fresh BDB onto a microfiber towel to soak an area, then wiping it onto the wheel to break down the existing coat and remove it. It worked, the staining was gone and the wheel looks like nothing had ever happened to it.

[79elcamino]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

i tried using BDB and a towel and it helped a little but i think i need to remove it from the whole wheel and start fresh. the best way to do that is???

[79elcamino]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

im thinking about waiting till after the winter to remove it all. i figure let the salt and time remove some of the BDB so it will be easier for me to remove it later. over a span of a couple of months i have applied many coats of BDB and just using a BDB soaked towel wasnt removing it. i want to remove BDB from all the wheels and just use wax.

[79elcamino]

How effectively will rubbing alcohol remove BDB?? Will it make it cloudy requiring me to use more alcohol or will one pass with a microfiber and the alcohol remove it all?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: life of brake dust barrier

BDB sprayed quite heavily onto a towel will remove an existing coat of itself. That's what I did in the scenario I described above and used maybe 1/4 of the can. Given that you don't use much at all when applying it for its intended use, that's quite a bit of product used to remove far less.

Alcohol seems to have mixed results removing BDB, but mineral spirits seems to do an excellent job. Used cautiously it won't cause any harm to the paint, just don't flood it and let it self dry on the surface. Apply it to the towel, work an area of the wheel, and wipe dry with a second towel. Repeat that process around the wheel until finished.