To clear or not?

[Guest Ari Gold]

Clear coat on wheel lips cracks and fades and looks shitty eventually. We all know that.

When refinishing, one has a choice of leaving the polished lips un coated, but this leaves the metal exposed to water spots, damage from brake dust and all other contaminants, so one has to be ultra vigilant with keeping them clean, otherwise the entire point of getting your lips redone is wasted.

However, this task is extremely difficult when you've got 36 or so nuts holding your lip on, and getting between them all is no fun.

If you clear coat, there's no problem, the lips stay shiny and happy, but you have the same problem of the clear eventually going yellow, crappy and flaky.

Which is better and why?

[greenday-rulz21 6]

Know exactly what you mean. Have done sh*t loads of research for when I polish my lips.

A clear coat in most cases also dulls down the polished finish. Which is another plus for not clearing them.

Found a product called PERMALAC. Is an american product. It is what I was seriously considering to use to clear my polished lips, if I did. I can't remember a lot of details now because it was a while ago.

Through days of research I found the one importer/supplier of this product in NZ which I can't remember off the top of my head. If you or anyone else wants it let me know. About $50 for a normal spray can from memory.

I'm still undecided in my case. It really depends if you're gonna be able to keep up with the attention they are going to need. Meaning probably polishing them once a week. I don't know how long wax's would last on the wheels, thats also protection.

It's late. I'll carry on in the morning

[CamB 48]

Polish then anodise?

[JiB 0]

Tried vaseline?

Apply with foam brush and wipe off with dry rag.

Ta-Da!

Disclaimer: Depending on pad compound, brake dust may stick.

[bravo 35]

Look into having them covered with that 3M (or similar) clear vinyl stuff. Not sure how well it could be applied, but it seems to go on some fairly interestingly shaped body panels OK.

Peel it off if it ever looks bad and have it done again.

[Lucan 196]

Polish then Mothers Wheel Wax...Clear coat FTL IMO

[zenetti 0]

If you want them super super shiny then basically it takes a lot of elbow grease with something like autosol or similar. After that apply a wax to give it some form of protectant and invest in a set of low dust brake pads. Expect to be cleaning them weekly still as even road grime will make them dull. However if you get the preparation right the weeekly cleaning shouldn't be so bad.

Clear coating still requires cleaning because if you leave them alone the dirt and moisture still seeps in causing the crazy cracking.

I would suggest getting the lips diamond polished and then clear coating them. It really is the best of both worlds and all you have to do to keep them looking good is wash them regularly with a sponge and car wash. Treat the clear coat like you treat your car paint.

We have customers who have wheels that are coming up 3 years old and still look like new because they clean them religioulsy!

Edited: just for Apex

Edited April 15, 2010 by zenetti

[Apex 693]

Polish then Mothers Wheel Wax...Clear coat FTL IMO

This.

I have three coats of wax on mine. Not polish Jono, polish is not a protectant

Once waxed they are easy to keep clean if you do it once a week, use a quick wax after a clean also. Dont use wheel cleaners, they take wax off!

[zenetti 0]

Not polish Jono, polish is not a protectant

Fixed

It all reaaly comes down to how well the clear coat is applied as well. I hav eseen some wheels that still look like new after 5 years. Conversely I have also seen some that are poo after 6 months.

Edited April 15, 2010 by zenetti

[cliffdunedin 8]

I use Silvo on my stainless steel lips and then use a couple of coats of Mothers wheel wax, i find that they only need to be cleaned every 2-3 weeks!

A little OT but does anyone know if Acid or non acid wheel cleaner works best.

Edited April 15, 2010 by cliffdunedin

[Guest Ari Gold]

I'm using Autosol on all my lips (yea that's right, I said all) Sidchrome metal polish is bloody good too.

Does anyone have experience with using polish tools? I've got a dremel and some attachments, but playing around with some cheap rims sitting at home (Hartge) I can't get the speed or application right. I'm sure once I nailed it, keeping them mirror shiny would be a breeze.

My LM's are diamond cut with a clear top coat, and they look stunning. There's no where for dust or anything to get trapped, so vigilance sees them looking as fresh as they rolled out of the factory (Rolled? Carried?) I agree that this is the best of both worlds.

A point I thought I'd raise as I've not seen it mentioned, if you clear coat lips, you run the risk of cracking the coating as soon as you torque the lips to the barrels and face. One way to get around this is to clear the whole wheel once assembled, but you run the risk of corrosion around the bolt holes.

[Mike 1]

what did the factories do?

I had similar predicament with my ACS wheels, I ended up going for the polish option as there was no bolts to get in the way.

Sam, I've had experience polishing before (built motorcycle mufflers and headers) and you need to apply quite a bit of pressure to do it right, I think a dremmel might be a little too gutless, better off by hand. might work ok around the bolts but would be very tedious.

[antil33t 90]

I'd clear them if I was driving the car every single day...

but if it was a show car, or a weekend car which you kept in the garage and clean all the time leaving them bare might be okay?

No expeirence in either things, though.

[Nobimmer 694]

I have tried using a dremel with a polishing wheel aswell. If you use the proper hard polishing compound and do it at the perfect speed ( I haven't been able to find this yet) and apply the right amount of force it will work. Otherwise it will just burn and look like sh*t.

I have also tried a metalux hard polish compound and it worked mint. But with the dremel head being so damn small it would have taken me four weeks, so I gave up.

You could always polish them and use a really decent clear to stop them from yellowing. The only problem is, with enamel clears, it will yellow. I'm not sure about 2k clear but I can't imagine it being half as bad as enamel. I have a few half full cans at work of both if you wanna try them. I also have a spray gun if you wanna come round some day and give them both a try?

[Forrest 35]

Hey Sam, after you polish with autosol, do you seal them with wax? if so what? sorry if I have missed a post with that in it.

[hybrid 1043]

use pure canuba wax and as high grade as you can afford.

This is how my newly polished LMs are being looked after.

for polishing ... dont f**k around with dremel... use this

http://www.mothers.com/02_products/05140.html

[greenday-rulz21 6]

Did you get your LM's cleared Josh? Can't remember if you mentioned that...

[Lucan 196]

use pure canuba wax and as high grade as you can afford.

This is how my newly polished LMs are being looked after.

Just wax i think, this is how mine are done too..