Hi,

I have on my vette those TTs D with machined lip:



2 Weeks ago washed the car with a bit of car shampoo in the bucket, dryed it and put it into the garage.
Some water gathered in the lips of the TTs on all 4 corners and dryed afterwards.
Yesterday I noticed the boundaries and some rest dirt and tried to clean that away of the lips.
No way with normal cleaning stuff, the dried dirt sits too deep and strong in the surface.
So I used metal polish, I assumed the lips where bare aluminium and if would not harm.
Well, dirt has gone, but the high shiny gloss as well. Now it looks like medium polished aluminium.
I used this metal polish befor to bring aluminium to high gloss.
I also have special aluminium polish with the same results.

Does anyone know if there is a surface sealant on the lips? From my experience dirt was always
hard to remove from those lips, I always thought they were bare aluminum as how easy particles could bite into the surface.
And this even though I cleaned and sealed the rims after every ride with car polish and wax.
Now it seems there is something on the surface, but it´s a really poor quality. Im dissapointed from AR, even though the rims are cheap.
I don´t want to know how they look like on a daily driver.
I have much better experiences with normal clear coated rims on my other cars, one set I drive every day in winter and still looks like new
since 10 years, thanks do polish and wax.

Now how to bring back the shiny gloss? I know there are companies that offer a special treatment, would be my second choice.
I can´t pull the tyres off without damaging the white letters (just stickers).
And it was a mess to match the tyres onto the rims without having balancing weights onto the lips outside.

 

Great looking 69 Zuendler. The metal lips are clear coated to protect from corrosion. Sounds like you have polished thru the clear. Not a big deal, you will just have to work harder to keep em clean.

 

I just had the idea to measure the electrical resistance where I have not polished the the lip.
I got 0 ohms everywhere at first attempt. So it´s obvious: there is no coating on the surface, it´s bare metal.
This explains why dirt can harm it so easy.
Now I just have the problem to get it polished like it came from factory.

 

I'd use Simichrome polish.

 

Yup! Simichrome works great. If you have a hard time finding it, go to a motorcycle shop for it.

 

I have TTD's on my '72 (installed back in '05) and the lips take a lot of effort to stay shiny. They're bare aluminum and the problem is that the finish is a coarse machined.. I use Mother's polish, but takes a lot of elbow grease. If you're brave, you can put the rear end on jackstands, run the car in gear, and polish the spinning wheel. It's not as dangerous as it sounds.

 

I was thinking the same thing, but wasn't going to suggest it, because some "dimbulb" would find a way to knock the car off the stands, while the engine was running, then try to sue you for providing bad advice.

One thing I didn't mention, was a product called "ProtectaClear", a liquid that's designed to protect uncoated metals. I used it on a set of AR Baja wheels that I put on a 4x4 that I used to own, and drove through the winter. This product did a pretty good job of protecting the wheels from the salt on the roads. I didn't mention it, because the OP's avatar says that he's located in Europe, and it might not be available there....

 

I had stripped the wheels on my old VFR750 motorcycle to get a similar finish as on the TTD wheels. They had a rough cast center that I primed and repainted a different color, then the similar machined lip that I polished. As lowbuck72 said, the machined finish was a pretty rough cut, so I wet sanded them progressively starting with 400 grit paper, working my way up to 1000 grit. Once I got there and it looked pretty smooth without any noticeable machining finish, I used Simichrome polish applied by hand and then polished off with a Mother's Powerball. The finish came out great. It actually held up pretty well riding in all types of weather, including lots of rain riding. I had to re-polish from time to time, but I think the smoother finish repelled water easier and kept the finish in better shape. I would imagine you could probably apply some kind of wax to it as well, but I never tried that. I probably have some photos somewhere, but they are very low resolution as they were taken over 15 years ago with an old digital camera. They really don't do the process justice.

 

Flitz paste, if it doesn’t work chrome gone and probably nickel showing

 

Mothers aluminum and mag polish

 

I wonder if a mother's powerball would work? I used one on my factory yj8 wheels it made a big difference. Now I can just hand polish them quickly to bring them back.

 

And, also, I too LOVE your car!

 

The powerball is pretty big in diameter. While it would easily polish the lip of the wheels, I believe that it would "overlap" into the cast area around the spokes, leaving some residue behind, which could stain the rough surface.

 

I would never run the car on jack stands as the drooping halfshafts would have a great chance of binding u joints. Not a good idea.

 

Subscribed!

 

Markus,
I also have TTO's on my car, that had the same machined lip as it Comes from the factory. I didnt like it as new, so I had the lips of my wheels polished to a smooth surface and all of the fine grooves from the lathe where removed in the process. Now they are easy to Keep shiny. Unfortunately this cost me an additional 125Euros per wheel for the Job to get done by a professional polisher! It was pretty Labor intense since the turning grooves from the lathe are somewhat deep and rough. You can tell if you take your fingernails and go over the lip of the wheel when new. But afterall it came out great and they stay perfect now. Just wash and seal with a non abrasive sealer. I love them now...

Pictures where done by the wheel polisher after the first process to Review the luster, as I didnt want the lip to be to glossy, Chrome like!