What wheel protectant product do we like?

I'm not a super fastidious guy, my Miata has some dents and dings and paint imperfections, but I don't like my cars looking really scruffy, and brake dust on wheels is my number one peeve. I'm about to put some fresh Konigs on my car as soon as my tires arrived, and I figured I should try treating/coating the wheels before I get tires on them, because the Porterfields make a ton of dust and it seems like some pretty tenacious stuff. So, what product works really well? I know Speedhunters said that the Kleers Aero Performer (designed to keep rubber marbles from building up on the bodywork of racecars) worked amazing as a wheel protectant, but Kleers doesn't ship to the US from what I can see, and their store gives me some scammy messages on my computer.

Pretty much anything coating the paint (even just wax) will make them easier to clean.  Not sure what the most effective option is, however.  

In reply to rslifkin :

I'm not super concerned about price, as long as it isn't anything crazy like that $1000 tub of wax that was bouncing around the internet a few years back. I suppose that the gloss black finish on the new Konigs also might make them a bit easier to clean than the satin black that were on my old Jongbloeds

See if you can get a small bottle of ceramic coating from someone like R1. A bottle big enough to do the car and wheels and glass is like $180, but no idea if they go smaller. 

My car after having it done last year. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bg4PzSTlRSu/

Same as any paint really. I hear the ceramic coatings are good, but never tried em. I use a cheap spray-on wax.

But as for chips, you have few options. When I splurged on 6ULs, I gave them 2 extra coats of 2k clearcoat before even mounting tires. A year of dirt roads every day and they still look good, although I can see a few tiny dings in the clear up close. 

I honestly cant relate with brake dust on a miata. If you want a show car you cant drive, then buy one. 

Nugi said:

I honestly cant relate with brake dust on a miata. If you want a show car you cant drive, then buy one. 

As I said in the first post, it isn't a perfect car and I autocross it, but I also take it to a few shows and take some pride in it and don't want it looking like an absolute roach

It's the only thing I've tried but I'm a fan of armor all brake dust repellant. I believe their promise is a month with no brake dust buildup, that seemed to work out for me across a couple different cars. But even once dust does start to build up after a while, it wipes off super easy. I found the stuff because I had a set of wheels refinished last spring and didn't want to immediately ruin their finish. I coated the entire wheel at the beginning of the season, and recoated the faces as necessary. When the wheels came off a tthe end of the season the backsides of the wheels had a decent amount of buildup, but it all wiped off super easily. And it was good enough that I started using it on all my cars. The only real annoyance to it is that if you miss any spots when applying it, ALL the dust gathers there. And the stuff sprays on clear so it's not hard to miss a spot. So my application method is to apply it as best I can, drive the car for a day, then find the dirty spots (usually behind the valve stem), wipe them down and respray there.

Whatever you use for car wax should work on the wheels.

I got my nice wheels ceramic coated, and then wax them. 

In reply to dps214 :

I did see a fair bit of positive reviews for the Armor All stuff, so I was leaning that direction. But the ceramic coating is something I never really considered. The detail shop that ceramic coats in our area specializes in more high-end/modified car and is a sponsor of Spec 13 Motorsports (a group of guys and cars that run HPDEs, Time Trials, Spec Miata and autocross) so mentioning that I'm with CNY SCCA might be worth something

NickD said:

In reply to dps214 :

I did see a fair bit of positive reviews for the Armor All stuff, so I was leaning that direction. But the ceramic coating is something I never really considered. The detail shop that ceramic coats in our area specializes in more high-end/modified car and is a sponsor of Spec 13 Motorsports (a group of guys and cars that run HPDEs, Time Trials, Spec Miata and autocross) so mentioning that I'm with CNY SCCA might be worth something

If you can detail a car and apply wax, you can do the R1 ceramic coating yourself.

Having a shop Ceramic Coat your entire car and wheels is $2k+ endeavor. The product itself isn't expensive, but it does take a bit of prep and then has to set for awhile. That's the reason they specialize in high end cars. Most people aren't going to spend $2500 on a paint treatment for their Accord. 

NickD said:

 

15x9 or 15x10?

In reply to Duke :

15x9. Going to be wearing 245/40R15 Hankook R-S4s

Please let me know how those fit!

To care for my wheels, I generally use a combination of dirt, brake dust and rain.