Polished Rims - Lacquer or not?

[robsoare]

Ey up muckers!

Just wanting some advice about lacquer-
I'm in the process of refurbing some deep dish wheels-
Have polished the rims of the wheels so they are now bare metal + masked them off so I can paint the centres.
Just wondering whether to lacquer just the painted centres or the whole wheel inclucing the polished rims?
I know lacquer can be notorious for lifting on rims so just a bit wary of putting it on the rims.
Any advice would be fannytastic..
Cheers, Rob.

[Mystery Machine]

Don't do it, leave them raw polished.

They will tarnish quicker but will simply need a quick rub over with Autosol (or similar) to bring them back to shiny. Don't neglect to do this fairly regularly or it will make the process a lot harder.

If you put laquer on, the rims might stay protected for a bit longer but water will eventually get under the laquer no matter how careful you are and then you get the 'woodworm' effect of the corrosion under the laquer. The only way to fix this is to completely strip all the laquer off, polish the rims and start again.

I've ran my Delica on raw polished rims as my daily for four years and that motor went through more abuse, mud and deep water than 99% of cars will ever see. The wheels still look awesome today (although it's now retired from 'daily' duties) thanks to a quick polish every now and again.

[welder]

Yup, what he said. Lacquer can also become discoloured and look sh*t. Best left bare IMHO

[cobblers]

Like MM said, once polished up properly, bare alloy doesn't need a huge amount of caring for. Use a polish that has a wax in it, and you'll get through most of summer or a couple of winter months without having to touch them at all, and when you do it's like 5/10 minutes a wheel depending on how fiddly they are.

If you lacquer them you'll be lucky to get 6 months before having to chemically strip, repolish and relacquer them. The stuff used by OEM manufacturers only lasts a couple of years and that is designed to stick to polished metal - Not something I've ever seen for sale in the UK.
Also, OEM "polished" wheels tend to be diamond cut or turned, leaving a slight (but uniform) texture for the paint to grab on to mechanically. By it's very definition, polishing produces a very very smooth surface, making things a lot worse.

As an example, I made a clock out of a lump of alloy that I polished up and lacquered (since it was going to be inside I didn't worry about it getting chipped or wet).

It sat in the shed for about 6 months, in the dry, and from a single chip in one corner there was 6 inch long tracks all along it.

[Mystery Machine]

Oh yeah, I forgot to say....get some wax to put on your newly polished wheels.

Chemical Guys Wheel Guard is the bolox! Goes on really well, buffs up really easily and best of all.....smells DEVINE! Seriously, the smell is so good you'll be wanting to put this on your wheels regularly!

www.chemicalguysuk.com/product_p/whegrd.htm

Use 4 x coats once you get them polished to a mirror finish then one coat every time you wash your wheels. You'll probably want to do it more often though!

I used about 6 x coats on my Centerlines when I refurbished them last year and they are still just as shiney now....and I haven't done anything to them in over a year!

You just gotta love before & after pics:




And here are my Mickey Thompson wheels which only needed a quick rub over with Autosol even after a year of neglect, lots of brake dust, a harsh winter and lots of deep water wading when Gloucester decided to turn into a massive lake!

[leigh]

Bruce I sometimes think you have more hours in a day than the rest of us!

[Mystery Machine]

Jun 17, 2010 22:20:17 GMT leigh said:

Bruce I sometimes think you have more hours in a day than the rest of us!

Quite the opposite - my day only has 18 hours in it.











I do have ten day weeks though

[Lawsy]

I agree, a few years back i had a Yamaha R1 and fully polished everything alloy on it, so frame, swinging arm, wheels etc etc

used to autosol it maybe 3 times a year and wax it up and it gleemed all the time, there was 1 item i purchased which was alloy, polished n laquered and that lasted about a year before i strippped it and just polished - the upkeep is much easier..

[andyf]

curse word, I wish this thread was posted two weeks ago. Guess what I did last Saturday week?