Big Hammer

I am not a big fan of silver painted wheels, and the black painted ones just look unfinished. the only other option is the chrome plated set. That would just add un-sprung weight to each corner, or go to aftermarket items. Why didn't they offer polished wheels?

jr3

Because they would look about the same as chrome. No need for it.

B Stead

Polished aluminum wheels are commercially available with clear-coat over them. They are called things like hyper-black, super-brilliant-coating, diamond-black, and super-black-coat. (Some of these may be clear-coat over polished aluminum while others may be a total powder-coat but powder-coat on aluminum is something of a special process.)

For instance, TR has a BBS in diamond-black for the C6. And they have an OZ Raffaello III that does actually say polished-aluminum with clear-coat but note that the lip is brighter than the rest of the wheel.

Otherwise, custom wheels are available as polished aluminum but the finish is a lot of work to keep up. Also, if the three-piece custom wheel doesn't have the two rim pieces welded then the seal of the wheel is a lot of work.

And chromed aluminum is available but they are more like heavy luxury wheels than high performance wheels
.

robvuk

Chrome is too shiny and black will hopefully be outdated soon. Polished wheels are my favorite finish. But if they are not available, I will search for something other than chrome or black.

Patman

I am the same way, I find chrome too shiny (had them on my C5) and I only like black wheels on bright red cars. I wish they offered a polished finish too. I love my polished wheels on my C6 (although I do plan on stripping the clear coat off and sanding them so I get rid of the ugly milkiness that they've got)

PaulB

I would like to think that the Polished Wheel is a thing of the past. There was always just too much cloudiness in the Polished finish...

B Stead

Here's a link that shows how much work is needed to keep the polished aluminum finish:

http://www.mitsu-media.com/showthread.php?t=3242


CCW wheels ? There are also affordable Spin Werks wheels at racerpartswholesale.com but I don't hear much about them
.

jimmyb

No polished wheels this time around. They are offering the base wheels (18"/19") in sterling silver (standard), chrome (optional) and machine faced (optional). I imagine the machine faced wheels will be closest to the polished look of the original C6 polished wheels, but with out the milk/clouds. Hopefully, we'll see some good pictures of these wheels soon.

In the Z51, it's sterling silver (standard), black (optional), and chrome (optional).

Jimmy

harley2

I have & like the polished wheels I have on my 08 Cpe!

I would get them again, if offered!

They are like chrome just a little more low key!

Went to the Bash, saw the Laguna Blue with chrome wheels, too much bling for me!

I'm going to go with the Black wheels for the $495 & maybe later buy some aftermarket wheels!

Bill17601

Larry/car

I have polished wheels on my C6. I think the sliver wheels will look ok. The chrome wheels don' t fit the design. All that extra glitz just isn't the current vogue.

Patman

GM just needs to find a better supplier of their polished wheels that's all. I've seen a lot of other brands of cars out there that have amazing looking finishes on their OEM polished wheels.

Big Hammer

I looked them up. Only available from RPW in size 15" - 18".

B Stead

Well, a custom wheel subject can apply to any generation Corvette. The C3 tuners are often looking for 18" wheels and the only thing easily available are hollow spoke cast wheels.

Here is a historical link just to show the finish of a SW wheel:

http://www.mazdatrix.com/spinwerks.htm

But CCW wheels are available in any size at about $750 each.

Some more ideas:

SSR has some 3-piece wheels with the two rim pieces welded and there are charts to pick wheel width and offset from.

Then TR offers a similar type of wheel from OZ that are sized for the modern Corvettes. At the OZ website it says cast-inner-rim and spun-outer-rim. I would rather see spun-inner-rim or forged-inner-rim but sometimes hot-forged is just called cast.

I'm surprised that CCW offers both three-piece wheels and one-piece-forged wheels. But if buying three-piece wheels the buyer needs to know if the two rim pieces are welded or not. If not then there is a seal to maintain.

For the Corvette, I like the BBS RS-GT in diamond-black-with-machined-lip. That should be a forged rim with a bolt-in forged center
.

~Stingray

Polished wheels can look as good as chrome if done right. And they last longer....they won't chip over time of daily driving.

jr3

Yep, some of them do get a clowdy or grayish look to them after they age some... and sometimes various cleaners will turn the finish clowdy.

robvuk

I don't mind what people call cloudiness. That's what I like about them. If you polish them up too perfectly, they look like chrome which is what I don't want.

The finish on the polished wheels is basically a clear coat paint job. Heavy duty solvents and cleaners will ruin the paint. If you clean them like you clean the body, they won't get cloudy.

Walt White Coupe

I would never get chrome. Love my polished and hope they make it available by 2016 when I intend to buy.
.

~Stingray

^ Wow, those are great looking rims. Some wouldn't be able to tell the difference between chrome and those. Great job!!

z edge

I thought the gumbys were forged chrome?