Care of Aluminum Wheels

[jaymista]

Can someone suggest how to maintain the finish on aluminum wheels? Can you just wax them and leave them? I was told some finishes used to shine up tires might screw up the aluminum if it gets on the aluminum. Any truth to that?

[Hit-By-Thunder]

Can someone suggest how to maintain the finish on aluminum wheels? Can you just wax them and leave them? I was told some finishes used to shine up tires might screw up the aluminum if it gets on the aluminum. Any truth to that?

Jay, do you know if the wheels are clear coated or not? I will bet they are clear coated. If you yourself don't know, do a test,

Take a small sheet of paper towel and rub a very clean wheel and see if the paper towel turns black. If the towels shows black, the wheels are bare aluminum. If they are bare aluminum, washing them more often with just mild soapy water and a rinse. Do not use any chemical on the wheel whatsoever. I do prefer bare aluminum wheels myself. If there is a problem with the finish (stain) you can usually rub it out with a 000 steel wool pad with water (the water is to lubricate the wheel while cleaning) then with an aluminum polish. One word on polishing aluinim though is once one wheel is polished, you will have to do the others as one wheel that was polished will be shinier (more mirror finish) and the others will have a brushed look.

If the wheels are clear coated, the same process is the same, mild soapy water and a rinse but not so often as the clear coat will help protect the wheels finish. One thing I hate about the clear coat is once you have a nick in the wheel that breaks the clear coat (like a wheel weight) the water gets trapped under the clear coat and starts to corrode the wheel. Because it is under the clear coat, there is no way to get rid of the corrosion that has started. The corrosion is like a white powder and turns black later on. You can have the clear coat removed chemically or by re-machining the face of the wheel. (now you know why I like the wheels uncoated).

Basically there are pros and cons of each style wheel but the main thing is, is to look after them. Also INSIST on the wheels being "Static balanced" this is where the tireshop installs the weights to the inside edge and behind one of the spokes. It's not a true Dynamic balance (wheel weight on the inside and outside outter lips) but it is the best alternative than cracking the clear coat. If the tireshops says they have weight that are clearcoat safe,....be sure they are Tape weights, NOT CLIP ON WEIGHTS. These clip on weights have a grey coating on them but when the weight is hammered onto the outside lip, the clearcoat is cracked so is the coated clip.

on a side note about wheel balancing,....(not on the car, so not road force balanced)

I took a real fancy Corvette convertable (C6 back then I think) and even went as far as spinning the wheels, marked the heavy spot of the rim ( rim turned 4 times to ensure heavy spot of rim, then mounted the ZR 19 tires (this is back a few years) and found the heavy spot of the tire again spun 4 times. Then matched the heavyspot of the rim and light spot of the tire together and Balanced the wheel. Wheel/tire assemblies were darn near perfect without any weights. Customer came back gave me a $100 tip and a case of beer. After that, I was the only person (tireguy) to touch his wheels. He even went as far to write head office.

He was a guy about 50ish and showed me a picture of his girlfriend in California, achi-wa-wa

ok kinda carried away there. just keep them clean no chemicals or abrasive products and you will bo ok. Those two kinds of products are years down the road yet

Rob

[jaymista]

Rob, I did as you suggested and found my aluminum wheels are clear coated. I will have to be a bit more careful and will handle them as above. I'll have to watch how I do my tires for sure as I don't want anything eating into the clear coat on the wheels. Thanks for the detailed explanation (again!). You are a wealth of info and I hope you get your Journey in pretty soon.

Jay

[TheStewie]

One of our 19" rims on our R/T is damaged, not sure if we hit something or it was vandalized by someone trying to scribe on the edge. If the clear coat is damaged I guess that I can expect that corrosion you talk about.

I checked into the cost to replace the rim and it is about 500.00 plus taxes installation etc. I'm just glad its a small area and not across the whole rim and chrome facing.

The Stewie

[wyoram]

One of our 19" rims on our R/T is damaged, not sure if we hit something or it was vandalized by someone trying to scribe on the edge. If the clear coat is damaged I guess that I can expect that corrosion you talk about.

I checked into the cost to replace the rim and it is about 500.00 plus taxes installation etc. I'm just glad its a small area and not across the whole rim and chrome facing.

The Stewie

I don't think you have much to worry about the corrosion. The corrosion will be more likely if a wheel weight is over the damage. The wheel weight will act like a sealer and keep the water retained better. Thus causing corrosion.

What will happen is over time you will be able to see the damage to the clear coat more. It will kinda look like the coating is flaking off around the damaged part and be a different color. I have some curb rash on one of my rims. I will take a pic tommorow when there is more light.