Taking advantage of a tire swap to re-polish "milky" aluminum flat discs back to mirror like finish. Should I clear coat paint them to seal the shine? No clear coat on them when I purchased the car 7+ years ago...they started to "cloud" up not long after purchase. Would appreciate some opinions.

 

If you clear-coat them they won't have the same shine. If keeping them cleaned up with Mothers/Simi/NeverDull/whatever is too much aggravation, then clear may be the way to go.

Try polished and use a good wax on them every time you wash the car.


My too sense...

 

Too scents from here:

If you clear coat them it'll last longer than not doing it. BUT, when they start to cloud up you'll have to strip the paint to fix it. And maybe the paint will start to flake.

Don't paint them just keep them clean and do the periodic polish job.

 

Look for a current thread about Rejex. The stuff sounds pretty neat. I think I am going to have a set of 16" phone dials stripped then treated with this stuff.
HTH,
Andy K

 

That is what scares me. Polishing has gone pretty well, but it is time consuming. Stripping paint would be a real pain on top of proper polishing. I bought the clear paint, but leaning towards not using it.

 

Are the wheels polished or anodized? If they are polished and you want the best possible result, they should be CC. BUT unless you are a real painter, forget it. This has to be a real pro job to work. You have to have real automotive products. And need to have the wheels completely repolished be a wheel refinishing pro then CC with their normally used automotive paint products. If there anodized, have them completely stripped, sanded and primed with etching primer and painted with same auto paint products.

 

A local metal polishing firm we use at work told me about this when I showed up one day w/ my polished wheels. Its excellent.
http://www.rtstuf.com/capecodpolishingcloths.htm

 

Polished by the PO, but the aluminum started to have a "milky" appearance...I guess that how aluminum tarnishes? The wheels turned out quite good after some trial and error. Not the mirror like finish of chrome, but pretty close. Have the necessary info now to do the job again at a quicker pace. I'm not going to clear coat...will wait and see how this lasts. Thanks for all the info/links.