'06 5 spoke wheels. Clearcoated?

[Cobraken]

I have an '06 VOI 9 car. When cleaning the wheels I noticed that 3 of them were clearcoated and 1 was not (polished to a shine much brighter than the coated ones).

I am curious as to why 1 is not clearcoat. Perhaps a wheel had damaged clearcoat and was repaired without the clearcoat or a wheel was replaced with a replacement wheel from Dodge without the clearcoat?

How difficult is it to remove the clearcoat? How hard would it be to Clearcoat the uncoated wheel? Would like the wheels to match.

 

[1bad540]

prob had some scratches and was buffed out and clear removed.

 

[mjorgensen Woodhouse]

The clear is a powder coating so it would have been chemically removed during a repair of some sort. A good wheel shop can polish the wheel and clear coat with powder so it looks very close to the other three. Look to spend about $150-$200

 

[Sonoman]

prob had some scratches and was buffed out and clear removed.

Exactly. Factory wheels are almost never sold without a protective coating-- the bare aluminum oxidizes rapidly and will need re-polishing frequently (as with low-cost aftermarket aluminum wheels). Salt exposure to an uncoated wheel accelerates the oxidation process to the point of corrosion and pitting.

The negative on clear coating is that it does reduce the natural brilliance of polished aluminum somewhat. Instead of the mirror-like finish of highly polished metal you are seeing through a sprayed-on polyurethane coating or powder coat that has some faint "color" and surface texture of its own. After owning raw polished aluminum parts for many years when I was younger, I would not go back to the routine of constantly having to re-polish things like wheels and intake manifolds. Yeah, it looks great. And then, it doesn't! There are other high-tech aluminum finishes out there, but they generally look more like chrome plating than highly polished aluminum.

 

[Cobraken]

Thanks for the info

 

[uvbnbit]

Unless it's a daily driver, i prefer non-cleared. maintaining with wax reduces the need to re-polish considerably. The "elements" can wreak havok on bare aluminum though.
Clearing polished alum does require extra care in prep. i.e. contaminant free, pricey adhesive promoter, pricey clear, etc. Powder clear would be way to go if re-clearing, and I think Mark is about right on price.

 

[Steve-Indy]

You might want to read this thread concerning the actual coating...especially the post by PeterMJ

http://forums.viperclub.org/threads/661409-polishing-your-rims

 

[Cobraken]

When I polished the wheels only the one had the aluminum black residue on the polish cloth. The other three had no black residue. That is an indication that at least the early 5 spokes were coated. My '09 had 6 spokes and they left a residue also. Most of the time I enjoy the wheels that can be truely polished.