Newb Wheel Question

D

DRT

New member
A bit of a newb question. What is the best way to know what kind've wheels are on a car? For example, how do you know if they are clear coated, aluminum, chrome? I want to polish the wheels on a vehicle of mine, but not sure what kind've polish to use without damaging anything.

Thanks
 
If you can post a picture of the wheels that may be the best way for us to help you out. Are they OEM wheels? If so, what's the make, model and year?



A safe cleaner for any type of wheel is P21S Wheel Gel, although it is a little on the pricey side. As for polishing your wheels, I'll defer to the experts here since all I do to my '05 M3 OEM 19's is P21S>>Clay>>Wheel Wax (x2 on the rears and x3 on the fronts). Wheel Wax isn't the easilest product to work with, but I'm pleased with the results.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. I *think* I might've found the answer on another board for my spedific wheels. But the question still stands for other wheels. My specific wheels are on a stock '98 pontiac trans am. Apparently from what i've found on other sites is that they are aluminum, but gm clearcoats all of them.
 
If you work in a small amount of metal polish on a small portion of the wheel and don't get any black residue (from polishing, not dirt), then the wheels are likely clearcoated. An uncoated aluminum wheel will produce black polishing residue on the pad rather quickly.

Unless we're talking about a classic car, then the wheels on your Trans Am are factory clearcoated.
 
Nearly all of GM's wheels are painted aluminum with a clear coat.



Some of the older chrome rims are actually chrome, but still have a clear coat protecting the finish. However, sometime in the past five years or so they switched to some sort of plastic chrome electo-plated coating that mimics the look of chrome, but is in fact not.



In short, stick to using your car wash detergent and wheel wax. If you keep up with your wheels and wash them every week or two you shouldn't ever need anything stronger to remove the dust.



Typical Painted Aluminum Wheel



5035-d.JPG




Typical Chrome Wheel



wheel1.jpg




Typical Fake Chrome Wheel



aly99381u.jpg




Note how shiny the fake chrome wheel is, yet it lacks any sort of depth like you'd see on actual chrome wheels.
 
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