Shine Seal Review

[SSLance]

Last February I decided to put a coat of Shine Seal on my billet rims in an effort to make them more daily driver friendly. As some of you know, billet wheels can be a real pain to keep looking nice and will water spot up if you just look at them wrong. I was finding myself not wanting to drive my car if there was even a hint of it going to rain because of the work it would involve regarding the rim.

So I polished the rims up real good with Mother's billet polish and put the Shine Seal coating on the rims.

A bit down this page you can see the initial application of the shine seal

http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=43529&page=2

Since then, I have driven the car, hard...with no regard for safekeeping of the rims. My first autocross event (with brand new brake pads mind you) was the first weekend in April and we had a test in tune on Saturday and an race on Sunday. I made over 20 autocross runs that weekend. The car then sat for the week untouched and the following Sunday I raced it again...in the rain... So all of the brake dust on the wheels from the first weekend sat on the wheels all week and then got worked in real good the following weekend racing in the wet. They were a mess to say the least. Couple days later, I washed the car as normal and scrubbed on the wheels just a bit with my wash mitt. About 90% of the brake dust came off fairly easily. It appeared as if a bit of the brake dust in the nooks and crannies of the front wheels had eaten into the shine seal coat and I was a bit pissed that I let it sit on there that long. But they still looked pretty good all things considered.

I continued to run them, race on them, daily drive them some and wash them as normal every 2-3 weeks or so. The more I washed them, the better they cleaned up. I had the rims off the car to get them rebalanced this week so while the caps were off I cleaned them real good with the cleaner that came with the Shine seal kit, here are the results. It's basically a spray on, wipe off deal...no elbow grease whatsoever...

Right Rear (was a brand new rim)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-DqDlEQ5097c/U64Aa6RSqzI/AAAAAAAAO4g/wUAc_5iVUv8/w1215-h685-no/IMG_20140627_183533_180.jpg

Left Rear

https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-WVzGxbcYHmQ/U64ARz2Q_lI/AAAAAAAAO38/CtFohSeqp0E/w1215-h685-no/IMG_20140627_183437_796.jpg

Right Front (these rims are about 4 years old)

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-oJF0enJJMXk/U64AXNDeePI/AAAAAAAAO4U/XDAg-Kb01k8/w1215-h685-no/IMG_20140627_183521_476.jpg

Left Front

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-nxPGyrUETbM/U64AU9X1EnI/AAAAAAAAO4I/UtpyXGKlBEc/w1215-h685-no/IMG_20140627_183458_019.jpg

What do you guys think? Not too freaking bad huh?

I'm sold... I'd use this product again in a heartbeat. Perfect way to take a PITA to maintain rim and make it basically maintenance free.

Hopefully this help some others dealing with the same issue on their cars.

[214Chevy]

Look good to me. And yes, billet wheels will "water spot" in a New York minute. :faint: :faint: And they will :buttkick: trying to keep them clean. Seems to be a legit product.

[Che70velle]

Lance, where did you purchase the product from? I see their website, but I don't see any dealers. I'm gonna try this stuff. I'm 42 and don't feel like polishing my wheels much anymore!

[glassman]

Yes, where at? you sold me thanx for the review. I'm saving up for Forgelines or Formula 43's but my Billet Specialties are nice for now, but keeping em clean.....

[66fury]

i sold my budniks yrs ago becuase i hated polishing them.wish i knew about this product

[SSLance]

I was thinking that I bought the kit at Amazon but I might have just bought it straight from their web site.

http://www.shineseal.com/products.htm

I got the master kit and did 6 wheels with it, front and back sides.

I just spent ALL DAY autocrossing at a school...in the rain. When I got home there was a puddle of brake dust \ rain at the bottoms of my wheels. I took a rag and wiped them dry, they look just as good as they did yesterday when I snapped those pics.

[130fe]

Lance, what did you clean the wheels with before applying the sealant? Getting ready to do this my self. Glad I saw this post.

[Che70velle]

Thanks! I'm ordering the kit.

[SSLance]

Lance, what did you clean the wheels with before applying the sealant? Getting ready to do this my self. Glad I saw this post.


Mother's Billet Polish applied with my fingers using a Nitrale glove. A little of the polish goes a long way and by using your fingers to work it in you can feel when it's working in and when you have enough product or too much.

I used a cone powerball on a drill to polish it out and then buff with a microfiber towel.

The kit itself comes with a pre cleaner that I didn't use much of as I had just polished the wheels with the Mother's.

[Shmoov69]

How well would this work on my non billet TTII's?

[SSLance]

I think it would be great... I used a similar product (sharkhide) on the aluminum pontoons on my boat 4 years ago and they still look great.

I'd just polish them up real good first and apply away...