Congratulations on the beautiful wheels... :dblthumb2:
The paperwork states these wheels have a chrome finish and they certainly look like chrome. Sad that the folks selling these can't give you a qualified answer.
Here's the trick to making chrome last a long time...
Keep it clean
Dirt held on by moisture over time causes damage to the chrome coating. If you keep the nooks, crannies, seams and any hard to reach area clean from dirt then moisture has no foothold.
Most people are lazy when they wash any wheel and the major, easy to reach surfaces get cleaned while the hard to clean or hard to reach areas don't get "thoroughly" cleaned. It's the areas that don't have anything physically touching them and agitating the dirt and road film on the surface to remove it that will have problems over time.
So keep your chrome wheels surgically clean and they will last a long time.
I do believe that applying some type of barrier-film will also help protect the chrome. While I've never looked at a chrome surface under a microscope my guess is although it looks smooth and solid to our eyes, if you could get down to the microscopic view of the surface you will see imperfections or surface irregularities.
Cleaning the surface really well and then applying "something" onto the surface to coat over it and seal it will help to slow down and prevent any deterioration of the chrome coating.
Meguiar's used to put out a Marine Catalog back when they used to sell M16 Professional Paste Wax and although the M16 was in the Pro Line it was sold in the Marine line and promoted for
brightwork on boats which meant any
shiny metal surfaces. The reason for this was to seal the surface to act as a
barrier coating against the harsh and very corrosive action of marine environments, especially salty marine environments.
I also checked with a "real" chemist about the "idea" of applying a wax aka barrier coating to the surface of chrome and they affirmed that "yes" it would be a good practice.
In my life, what I've seen when it comes to chrome wheels is most of the
rust and
chrome flaking off rims has always started first in the hard to clean areas, not the larger, easy to clean portions.
So get a great brush for cleaning wheels and also some good wheel cleaners and some type of protective product that you don't mind applying. If you don't mind applying it then you will. If you find the product is a pain to apply then you won't [apply it].
Kind of like my article,
"Find something you like and use it often"
The 8" Boars Hair Brush we carry here at AG works very well in my opinion for cleaning wheels and is safe for the chrome finish. Dedicated it for only this set of wheels and clean and rinse the brush when you're finished and it will serve you for a long time.
Here's a picture of me using it on a very rare Porsche wheel for the exact purpose of letting the "hairs" get into the hard to reach areas, agitate them and thus clean them...
1994 Porsche 964 Turbo 3.6 - Modeled by Janna and Amy
From post #19
First up... wash the wheels and tires... soft Boar's Hair Brush, lug nut brush and Wolfgang Tire and Wheel Cleaner
The Lug nut brush works really well for cleaning the barrels
Bristles are flexible to get into intricate areas and agitate cleaner with roadgrime and brake dust
Daytona Speedmaster Wheel Brush for getting behind the wheel and into tight areas...
First wheel cleaned and rinsed...
Sprayed on Iron X and let dwell, as you can see the wheels were actually pretty free of any iron contamination... that's a good thing although I know everyone wants to see a lot of color running off the rim... (that would mean the wheel was in fact embedded with iron filings.
After agitating I rinsed...
Perfectly clean and contamination free... I repeated the same procedure to the other three wheels and tires...
Hope that helps...
