Help. Chaulky wheels on new camaro

[HellaBroke]

Detailed a camaro a week ago, used mothers wheel cleaner and a microfiber MIT to clean and a short boars hair brush. Dressed the tires with chemical guys extreAm vrp left the wheels bare customer did not want anything on the wheels there were a lot of surface scratches I'm guessing from automatic car washes... Now they are looking almost chaulky... Anyone have any suggestions?? Iv never polished wheels and I'm not 100% sure if they are clear coated (I don't think they are.
Sorry for crappy pictures its rainy and nasty in ms today
1542915430

[HellaBroke]

Should I pick up a mothers power ball? (Looking for a local auto zone product just to get my buddy happy and not disappointed for wait time )

[HellaBroke]

Would possibly using menzerna 2500 or 4500 by hand polish out the small defects? And then spraying something like reload over it to protect?

[ihaveacamaro]

try claying the wheels.

[TimmyG]

try claying the wheels.
This.

And I would definitely seal those wheels up with something. Collinite 845 is readily available OTC in most areas.

[Setec Astronomy]

It's hard to tell from the pics but those look like the GM "high polish" wheels which are clear-coated. Your hand polish idea should improve them. I never have much luck with a powerball but that may work well for those wheels.

[forrest@mothers]

Those OE wheels are clear coated. Which of our wheel cleaners did you use? (we make 3)

A PowerBall with an appropriate polish (I prefer a plastic polish, but others suggest a light paint polish) would help their appearance. Claying removes embedded contaminants, which doesn't appear to be the problem here.

All the scratches you see in the rim - can they be felt with a fingernail?

[HellaBroke]

You can see there are light scratches on the surface. I did Decon them with ironx as well (ensured product did not dry) ill clay them and try 4500 by hand.
For a sealant I have oc 2.0 reload and menzerna power lock.
Mothers foaming wheel and tire cleaner. Blue car on front. Can't seem to hyperlink from mothers site direct for exact product ill see if I can pull it up on google.
(I use this because its local every store has it easy to get last min)

[Ryry11]

A griots 3" polisher with some 4500 would probably do the trick and save you some time. If you don't have a gg3", by hand should improve them. It's an easy enough wheel to polish. I'd definitely make sure to seal them afterwards.

[HellaBroke]

I'm reading the warning now on use with polished wheels now... I read oe wheels and figured it was like any other factory clear coated polished wheel and good to go.
@ihavecamaro are you positive they are clear coated? I was pretty sure as well and now I'm wondering if they were not. I'm going to call a chevy dealer on my lunch and verify...

Never have I had a problem with factory wheels and this cleaner it's weird...

[Vegas Transplant]

Detailed a camaro a week ago, used mothers wheel cleaner and a microfiber MIT to clean and a short boars hair brush. Dressed the tires with chemical guys extreAm vrp left the wheels bare customer did not want anything on the wheels there were a lot of surface scratches I'm guessing from automatic car washes... Now they are looking almost chaulky... Anyone have any suggestions?? Iv never polished wheels and I'm not 100% sure if they are clear coated (I don't think they are.
Sorry for crappy pictures its rainy and nasty in ms today
1542915430

Whatever you do, don't cause more damage than what's already present.

Sounds like your method was extremely gentle. Damage had to be there before you detailed.


The damage sounds like wheel acid/alk. cleaner, and scrubbing without a pre-rinse first.
forest@mothers has a point with the plastic polish. I don't know of any device otc that you can add to a drill that has "cutting" properties of the foam device, so you'll have to rely on the polish for results, if any.

[Setec Astronomy]

The damage sounds like wheel acid/alk. cleaner, and scrubbing without a pre-rinse first.

If they are really tunnel-wash scratched, who knows what they were pretreating them with.

[HellaBroke]

So there is more to this story they used there own cleaner post detail and a the scratched finish is I'm goin to assume from the automatic car wash they ran it through.

I'm going to use what was mentioned above 4500 to polish the scratches out and use mothers on the tires to remove the white chalky off the tires. The cloudy on the surface looks like its on the surface so I'm hoping the 4500 will remove it.

There is a clear understanding that this might not fix everything and this is a Curtsy at this point. And no liability if this dosent work out.


I apologize to everyone for the false alarm I was under the impression this was from products I used and it turns out purple power and a dish brush are to blame.

I was seriously sweating bullets this morning!!

Thanks everyone for the help and information.
I will follow this up with pictures steps taken and lessons learned on the process taken to fix this.

[KillaCam]

Hate to break it to you but those wheels from the factory just lack shine. I detail a good friends 2010 camaro for her and even when new, those wheels just don't shine very well. I don't know if it's the finish of the wheel or the clear coat they used, or both. Most camaros I see on the road with those wheels all have the same problem.

[Vegas Transplant]

If they are really tunnel-wash scratched, who knows what they were pretreating them with.

Tis true hand.


So there is more to this story they used there own cleaner post detail and a the scratched finish is I'm goin to assume from the automatic car wash they ran it through.

I'm going to use what was mentioned above 4500 to polish the scratches out and use mothers on the tires to remove the white chalky off the tires. The cloudy on the surface looks like its on the surface so I'm hoping the 4500 will remove it.

There is a clear understanding that this might not fix everything and this is a Curtsy at this point. And no liability if this dosent work out.


I apologize to everyone for the false alarm I was under the impression this was from products I used and it turns out purple power and a dish brush are to blame.

I was seriously sweating bullets this morning!!

Thanks everyone for the help and information.
I will follow this up with pictures steps taken and lessons learned on the process taken to fix this.


I knew from your op what caused the issue. There's no way the method you described could have caused this. Good luck with the 4500, not enough cut...but forrest@mothers is correct on the plastic polish for optimal correction.

If nothing else, then a can of aerosol dressing applied, then wiped off will temporarily hide the effect of the Purple power...I've hacked my share of wheels in the past.