Does anyone know for sure whether the stock SS wheels were bare polished aluminum or had some sort of clear coat? Probably not that important, but I’m thinking about hiding a little rash and painting them with a color I like. If they were bare polished alloy, that would be very reversible. If coated, it would be a bit more work to restore.

 

Clearcoat.

 

Thanks!

 

You could remove the clear coat and buff them



I did these rims, by hand , several finer grits of wet sand paper , then buffed them with mag wheel polish.

 

Spiffy!

 

Thanks, I did them by hand, but I did use a buffing pad for the final polishing.

I think the SS rims would be easier to do, once you chemically remove or scuff off the clear coat



The aluminum should be nice you could maybe start with 800 grit then 1,000, then 1,500 and the 2,000 , buff and polish and keep them nice with a spray wax . I did not clear coat my wheels

 

FYI. The space between the spokes is painted a dark metallic gray. If you plan on stripping the clearcoat, some provision/prep will have to be done about this painted area. Don't want to destroy the painted part with stripper.

 

Yes , that is not an area you want to try and polish! One of the reasons, I hand sanded the clear coat off. The grey part wasn’t removed