I'm thinking of having my wheels polished, and wanted to discuss the pros and cons I've been told that it takes lots of work to keep them polished Any fans here of polished wheels???

 

I have a set of 16" dish wheels that are polished. They've been great. Not too hard to maintain as long as you keep them clean, hand wash them, and never use a brush on them. Oh yeah, and try not to use wheel cleaner on them, it makes them hazy. After washing and drying, about every other month, I go over them with some Never-Dull and it keeps them looking great. It sounds like a lot of work, but it really isn't. Just kind of fun Saturday morning putzing around stuff.

 

I have polished dishes... so far I've just washed and waxed them. They haven't seen heavy use yet though, so we shall see...

 

Do what Andrew says. I did the same and never had a problem.

 

Had polished wheels on my 89 GT. Never had any problems and they were easy to keep shiney. Just like Andrew and Thaddeus. I also would wax them about twice a year.

Jim Mayzurk
93 GTS

 

I did wax them once... didn't seem to help or hurt. I think the never-dull makes the biggest difference. That stuff is awesome on anything polished (like my intakes )!

 

Thanks for all the feed back I'm also considering chroming, but it takes so damn long to get them back. Something like 4 to 6 weeks Maybe I'll just have them refinished, takes 24 hours, and the cost is $125.00 per wheel in Santa Ana . BTW chroming is cheaper

 

Stay away from chroming if you can help it. If it start flaking around the lip (usually from the tire shop install eqioment) it can cause very annoying rim leaks. I know from experience on my minivan. Recently switch to steel wheels. Someone here recently had theirs powdercoated in black metalic. Looked awesome!

 

The polished GTS cup wheels on the very brown 1980 have thus far been professionally polished twice plus I have several hours of hand polishing yet they are far from perfect. The very hard racing pads literally spew molten metal /black crud which gets imbedded in the aluminum. I take the wheel off the car put it up on a trash can so I can stand there and turn my fingers black using the various polishes and cleaners to remove oxidation. Waxing probably helps limit normal oxidation of bare aluminum. I recall that in nature aluminum never ever appears as a pure metal but is ALWAYS combined with something else so perhaps it is always trying to return to a more normal state !

 

I had my forged disks polished and had the insides of the spokes and rim painted charcoal... painting makes them easier to get the brake dust off...

I saw a small bit of oxide on my center cap... But I think it will come off fine... most people just say to keep them clean with soap and water and occasionally use a polish like mothers or simichrome to givce them a new finish...

Any wheel looks like **** when neglected and dirty... so it depends on how much time you want to put it... if you are going to go three years between washings than maybe the polished bare aluminum is not for you.... but every two months...you can catch any oxidation before it goes wild and makes you rims look bad...

160 each plus yokahama avs sports for 135 more each... mounted and balanced... Wheel techniques in Santa Clara CA is a tirerack installer so you don't pay for tax or shipping!!!!

The factory anodized finish is really hard to remove... I would not even try it... if you can afford it just send them to wheel techniques... they will also clean/repair small scrathes and curb rash....

Also if you want something wild thay can powder coat... or reanodize silver like the factory... or anodized colored of you are going for a pimp my ride approach...hehe

LO

 

Good name Loren!

 

My standard wheels are polished, not chromed....so it is alot of work to keep them looking good....after just one cleaning they start to get hazy....but it could be me being to vigorous with the brush too...I will try waxing them to see if there is an improvement! Chroming is better, IF its done right....wheelenhancement does a great job & it is so much easier to maintain...plus its only $75 a wheel more ($200 vs 125) & it will look great alot longer!

 

I hear that using vasoline on them, polished or anodized, will help keep the shiny and "fed".

 

I would think that it would mearly attract more dirt. Why don't you try it and let us know what happens.

 

Sorry, I have chrome wheels. But a friend who had the anodized wheels used to put a very light coat on his and they did look better. As far as I know they didn't attract any more dirt or grime than normal.