Polished vs Chrome
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 187
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From: Scottsdale AZ
Polished vs Chrome
Right up front, this may be a pretty unrealistic post but I'm going to try anyway. Can anyone tell which of these below is polished and which is chromed? I have no eye for this kinda thing, so I don't know if it's even possible to tell via a picture of if you have to see it in person but I'm having no fun trying to chase down a center cap replacement so any help would be much appreciated.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Jan 2004
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From: Knoxville Tn
The center cap on the right is a 'chromed' plastic. it is meant to be installed on wheels that are polished to a high gloss at the factory. The one on the left is simply a center from a non polished painted C-5 (early) wheel. There are no Chromed C-5 5 spoke wheels (from the factory) on these wheels. People mistake the highly polished aluminum wheels as being chromed white often. I'm sure there a few folks out there that did get them chromed after market. Some of the early 'wagon wheels' were chromed.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 187
Likes: 0
From: Scottsdale AZ
The center cap on the right is a 'chromed' plastic. it is meant to be installed on wheels that are polished to a high gloss at the factory. The one on the left is simply a center from a non polished painted C-5 (early) wheel. There are no Chromed C-5 5 spoke wheels (from the factory) on these wheels. People mistake the highly polished aluminum wheels as being chromed white often. I'm sure there a few folks out there that did get them chromed after market. Some of the early 'wagon wheels' were chromed.
Last edited by Down; Mar 6, 2018 at 06:48 PM.
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To me, it looks like the one on the left is for a high polished wheel while the one on the right is for a chrome wheel (non-factory). The painted wheels I had on my '00 had center caps that were painted just like the wheel.
Le Mans Master
Joined: Sep 2000
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From: ABQ NM
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The cap on the left does not resemble the one for the stock painted wheel at all. Also, if memory serves correctly, the OEM painted cap did not have a colored C5 emblem as represented on both of these caps.
Drifting
Joined: Dec 2010
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From: West Seneca NY
The left one is for a stock polished wheel, I don't have one right now to look at, but I think it has an aluminum stamping attached to the plastic cap that is polished & clear coated, I can see the orange peel in the clear.
The right one looks to be chrome.
The right one looks to be chrome.
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