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2000A4 - I assume these stock wheels are chrome plated ? but are pitted or corroded in spots. What can I do to fix this, other than send them off to be spray painted or powder coated? Chrome cleaner does absolutely nothing and I don't want to scratch them up and make them look any worse than they do now. Anything I can do inexpensively, like spray them myself? For any of you that have done this - Does Platidip last long enough on a wheel? And no I do not want to spend a genomous amount of money for new wheels. Thanks for any suggestions.
Plastidip sounds like your best bet to me. Plastidip lasts for quite a while, there are tons of how to videos and pages of info. It's about your least expensive and least amount of down time for your car. Your other option is taking to a reputable wheel shop and see what they say, but could cost. Hope this helps.
2000A4 - I assume these stock wheels are chrome plated ? but are pitted or corroded in spots. What can I do to fix this, other than send them off to be spray painted or powder coated? Chrome cleaner does absolutely nothing and I don't want to scratch them up and make them look any worse than they do now. Anything I can do inexpensively, like spray them myself? For any of you that have done this - Does Platidip last long enough on a wheel? And no I do not want to spend a genomous amount of money for new wheels. Thanks for any suggestions.
What you have is corrosion under the clear coat that was sprayed from the factory on a polished aluminum wheel. There is no way to fix, other than strip off all the clear, re/polish the wheel, and re/clear coat. Not cheap, or easy.
Last edited by gowenfast; Jul 27, 2018 at 06:39 PM.
Reason: typo
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Originally Posted by gowenfast
What you have is corrosion under the clear coat that was sprayed from the factory on a polished aluminum wheel. There is no way to fix, other than strip off all the clear, re/polish the wheel, and re/clear coat. Not cheap, or easy.
You're better off bead-blasting them with walnut/fiberglass, and re-polishing from there. (assuming that's the look you want)
I’ve re finished motorcycle wheels that had the same issue. Aircraft stripper to remove the clear coat, buff & polish until perfect, or until you’re happy with them, then re clear coat. I would guess it would take 5 or 6 hours per wheel once the wheel was sitting on the bench without the tire. I spent more time than that on the bike wheels, but it’s a bike, it was winter, and they "had" to be perfect. LoL
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Strip the clear off, and if you want to stick with the OEM look, polish them up and consider putting a clear coat on the wheels. Or, have them powdercoated in just about any finish you want.
I bet they would be cheaper than you think to drop off to a wheel repair shop to have refinish, and Josh is right a Saturday and a few beers would have them looking tip top
Thanks for all the advice. Being aluminum should be a whole lot easier to work with than chrome plated. Just have to progressively sand the crap out of them 'till they are smooth and shiny, then recoat with clear. Sounds easy enough. Or have somebody else do it. I'm toying with the idea of Plastidip, and if I don;t like it, I can always rip it off and have the wheels refinished, It's only 2 of them that have these corroded spots on them so the job to clean them up is only half as bad.
Another idea. My used vette came with aftermarket chrome wheels. They all had pitting around the stem holes and after 100k miles were dull. I bought a set of chrome replicas from RPI for $800 shipped and sold my old ones for $250. For $550 net cost it was a great deal. Once I was quoted $800 to rechrome.
Last edited by The Rabbi; Jul 28, 2018 at 01:05 PM.
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How can I fix these wheels?
