Rusted Steel Wheels w/Holes

C

crc1

New member
I'm talking about those we see on Toyota's, Hyundia's, etc. with plastic hub caps. The wheels look like they were powder coated from the factory, but in the Northeast it doesn't take long before they are covered with rust. Most of the hub caps allow a lot of the rusted wheel to show. The correct fix would be to remove the wheels and dismount the tires, sandblast the rust, apply rust converter or encapsulator, prime and paint. Not practible or possible as part of a detailing project.



My question is has anyone tried anything else, even if it's semi permanent and had to re-applied once or twice a year. Paint is not going to adhere to a rusted surface, and would probably start to peel off before long. That would be more unsightly than the rust! How about Groits Undercarriage Spray or something similar? If it would just slowly (but evenly) fade away it could be workable and really improve the apperance of these cars. None of my vehicles have these wheels or I would experiment with them. Any idea's??
 
The correct fix would be to rip them off and throw them out. They are cheap base model junk. I always recommend people swap them out to alloys, and I've had a lot of people listen to me. The next time I see the car, its got factory correct alloys instead of rolling rust.
 
mini1 said:
The correct fix would be to rip them off and throw them out. They are cheap base model junk. I always recommend people swap them out to alloys, and I've had a lot of people listen to me. The next time I see the car, its got factory correct alloys instead of rolling rust.
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agreed, spend a little more and get the stock alloys. the rust from the steel wheels and hubcaps take away the appearance from the car and over time just looks like crap. never again will i buy a car that has them and if i do, i will swap them out/pay a little more for the alloys...
 
If you do not feel like spending a couple hundred on a new set of rims/tires just go get some por15 and do that. It will make a drastic improvement and will last years as well.



- LI 85
 
Yeah, either POR-15 or my usual preference, Rust Encapsulator. Or something else in that vein.



FWIW, noting that it's a bit late now, I have those kind of wheels for winter duty on my MPV. I've just kept 'em AIOed/waxed since new and I do a little redo (this year it was just SRP and another coat of Collinite) after each winter. Eight years later and they're still nice and rust-free.



For that matter, I've run similar wheels on Caprices and Crown Vics and it was the same story- take care of them and they'll keep looking nice indefinitely; let 'em go and they'll look like [crap] pretty fast.
 
I've noticed that some GM products actually have steel wheels in a 5 star pattern and the wheel cover fits perfectly over it. It seems like such a simple yet ingenious idea ( you actually have to look closely at the wheels to tell if they are really steel and not alloys).
 
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