Polished Aluminum Wheels

[fwer]

I am having trouble getting my C6 wheels clean with cleaners purchased at the local auto store that I use on chrome mags. I am going to try original the original GM cleaner and see if the film will come off. Has anyone experienced this or found a jobber product that is GM approved and works?

 

[Chrisr]

Hi fwer & welcome to

I have on '03 with the polished aluminum wheels and I use Meguir's Hot Rims to clean them and then use the "powerball" to polish them. Just remember: Polish your wheels with what ever you use for the body. Don't use any products with petroleum products on your wheels.

Hope this helps you some.

Chris

 

[Don Baldwin]

The 06 polished wheels are all milky looking unlike the polished wheels on the 05. I believe that the milky look comes from the clear coat. Without removing the clear coat you will not get a highly polished look. Removing the clear coat is hard to do and much harder to keep polished.

 

[jdavis]

Owners of the C6 have complained about the finish on the polished wheels since the first one hit the ground. Complaints to GM have not produced any improvement. The manufacturer of the wheels, Autocast, has recently declared bankruptcy so perhaps a new supplier will do a better job. Don Baldwin is right about the milky look comming from under the clearcoat. Incomplete polishing and failure to completely clean the wheel of polishing compound before clearcoating causes the haze. You can not clean or polish the haze out unless us remove the clearcoat and have the wheels professionally polished then reapply the clearcoat. The wheels can be made to look somewhat better by waxing but that's about it. Do not use anything abrasive on your wheels.

 

[Remo]

It's Reprehensible

This is really a sad state of affairs. I consider myself lucky in that the ones that came on my 2001 vert were perfect (a hit and miss proposition). But I've seen many C5's with the same "milky" look caused from a poor polishing treatment before clear coating. The problem is not isolated to the C6's, it's been going on for years. I'll just bet GM doesn't want to reject them as that would slow up production. Let's hope the new wheel vendor has a better quality control method.

Remo:cool

 

[Chrisr]

..The problem is not isolated to the C6's, it's been going on for years.
Remo:cool

My '80 Vette had the polished slotted wheels. They looked like crap!! I finally grew a set of ba!!s and stripped the clear coat off with lacquer thinner. They were beautifull after that!!!!!! Luckily I was able to keep it in the garage to help with keeping the wheels clean.

I feel fortunate that my C5 has a good set of wheels on it.

 

[Marlar]

I ordered my MY Z51 with painted rims expecting GM to make the 10 spoke rims available. Since that didn't happen, I traded them in for a set of GM rims that have been triple chrome plated locally. They are awesome!

:crazy

 

[fwer]

Who did you trade them to? Are they original rims or jobbers?

 

[Marlar]

The dealer where I bought the car is Maxie Price in GA. They ordered some GM rims, sent them out for plating to a plating shop in Villa Rica, GA. I guess they had dealt with them in the past. That way, I gave them my painted rims, they switched the tires onto the plated GM rims, my warrenty is still intact and they are really shiny!!

:cool

 

[Z-51]

The 06 polished wheels are all milky looking unlike the polished wheels on the 05. I believe that the milky look comes from the clear coat. Without removing the clear coat you will not get a highly polished look. Removing the clear coat is hard to do and much harder to keep polished.

I guess I'm lucky my wheels look good. Maybe they made a mistake on my car :L

 

[vett boy]

My 03 wheels look very good but nothing tops chrome. If I was going to keep the car long term i'd a least look at chrome. Good luck

 

[jdavis]

All of the C5 polished wheels from 2000 thru 2004 were forged wheels which produced a much better finish than the cast C6 wheels. Cast wheels require more finish work due to the imperfections caused by the casting process. In the case of the C6 wheels, they have never measured up the the quality of the C5 polished wheel.
BTW, GM recently signed a contract with a company in China to produce wheels for them. It will be interesting to see what the quality of the new wheels will be.

 

[vett boy]

All of the C5 wheels from 2000 thru 2004 were forged wheels which produced a much better finish than the cast C6 wheels. Cast wheels require more finish work due to the imperfections caused by the casting process. In the case of the C6 wheels, they never measured up the the quality of the C6 polished wheel.
BTW, GM recently signed a contract with a company in China to produce wheels for them. It will be interesting to see what the quality of the new wheels will be.

I think your correct and it was only a matter of time till our Vetts are stamped "made in China''