Inner Wheel Surface Tire Weights with Applied Coating/Sealant

Okay, I have to ask. Say you've finished a customer's vehicle and you've applied a high-tech-more-slippery-than-snot coating or sealant on the vehicle's inner rims. The customer drives off with low-profile large diameter rims and gets a flat that has to be replaced and cannot be patched. These coatings/sealants make it much easier to throw wheel weights if the area where the wheel weight is being applied is not prepped properly. Good wheel weight adhesion is imperative and throwing wheel weights on large diameter rims (depending on where the wheel weights are placed) is not all that hard. What have you told your customer regarding the coating/sealant on the inner rims to tell the wheel and tire shop when they go apply wheel weights?

 

i would think even though the coating is on the rims that the stuff used to stick the weights will adhere just fine.

 

We have not seen/heard of a problem with weights thus far. I personally have done my wheels in coating(Gtechniq C5) before the tires were replaced with the old wheel weights removed. If anything I think you would get a better adheasion as the surface is perfectly clean, in my experience you don't often see a tire shop spend extra care in cleaning a preparing the surface for weights anyways.

Just my experience and opinion.

 

It shouldn't be an issue. I work in a tire shop and those wheel weights are stickier than all hell. Plus we typically use a chemical prep cleaner before we put the weights on called "buffsol" and I'd bet that it would remove Opti-coat in a heartbeat

 

Most tire installers use a brake cleaner.

 

Conversely...any recommendations for removing the adhesive? I assume 3M adhesive remover will work?

 

Yes, this is one of the better ones.