It's been raining all week in south florida. Rain everyday is depressing but what's worse is having multipiece wheels. Water gathers in the barrel causing some wheel vibration. The rotors get surface rust and the wet rust drips into the puddle. When you drive, the rust water gets all over the wheel. Now you have wheels that are pretty disgusting looking.

I swore off ever getting multipiece wheels again but I did it anyway. I hated this before and I hate it now. I also miss chrome. More durable and easy to maintain. Polished looks terrible dirty. I can't wax them for protection, have to use wheel polish...which is a chore.

I'm known to be a complainer but let me be clear, I love the look of the wheels on the car. It's so sweet I could hug it. Nothing like polished multipiece wheels for ultimate class and style. But at what cost?!?! Is it worth it?

You all tell me.

 

to me it's worth it, coz' it doesn't rain for more than a month here in cali, so no big deal. and the vibration is only at high speed say over 70mph, just drive a bit slow. i am fine

that's the thing about polished wheels, and that's why i don't want to own them ever again. only american made wheels have those i think. jdm wheels are most anadized, they are so easy to maintain

i will not put 1 piece wheels on these cars imho

 

I'm also in SoCal, so it's worth it for me, too. My inner barrels are clearcoated and the outer lips are chrome, so I don't have the cleaning issue the OP mentioned.

 

Now that the wheels have been mounted, can I clear coat them? Would they have to be stripped or can I just spray it on. Guess I contact the manufacturer and ask them.

 

in addition to my 3GS "money pit" i also have a Yamaha Banshee Quad i spent 10's of thousands on and i enter in sand shows and stuff. i went thru the same crap. i replaced all the factory trimmings with billet alum first. then i noticed that when i ride the quad in the sand....the billet basically gets sandblasted and its like 2 weeks of elbow grease to get the quad lookin sweet again. what my chromer/polisher suggested is to have the billet basically powdercoated clear. that way it keeps the polished look and is resiliant to the elements. it sounded weird to me too and i actually never did it, but unless this fool was pullin' my #%%, it may be a possibility. check it out!

p.s.--short of all the earthquakes and fires we go thru......the weather is still nearly perfect all year livin' in So*Cal. we dont have to worry 'bout the same stuff as some of you. sorry!

 

don't even try to clear coat them. problem with clear coat is that over the yrs, they will get dull and yellow. not good. trust me i have experience.

plus, clear coat on high polish, a lot of times they might not stick very well

 

had polished lips on my iforged. i waited longer for them than i had them on my car... the polished lip was a P.I.T.A.

 

Yeah, I'l just deal with it. I'll just polish them every 2 weeks. At least the rainy season is almost over.

 

oh my hre (polished no clear), eventually, i gave up.... i polished the wheels again before i sold them, that was my last effort

 

Try ZAINOing your wheels while you ZAINO your toy, I did that with the toys.

It has been raining on and off in Dallas (last time I washed my toys was 3 weeks ago), my toys and wheels still look very clean!!!

Try it, IMO ZAINO also works on wheels!!!

 

Everyone keeps telling me to NOT wax the wheels. If they had a clear coat or paint or chrome, yes. But polished billet aluminum apparently is a no-no. I'm so tempted to try it but no one I talk to advocates waxing them.

More rain this weekend. When will it ever end.

 

agree, if it's painted (clear coat is just a paint), then yeah you can do it. otherwise it's not going to work.

 

Well, I went ahead and washed it. Now the sky is clouding up again. At least I had a few hours to enjoy it.
Tried the wax. Now I see the issue. It doesn't faze that aluminum. It looked no better, no shinier....didn'y even remove water spots. These wheels are gonna get painted.....one of these days.