Acid damage or cloudy streaks on chrome rims, any solution?

[Canuckguy]

I bought a 2017 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTZ and it came with nice chrome rims. At the dealership I noticed some of the rims were a little strange looking but decided to buy it anyways because it just looked like overspray and easy to clean off. Long story short, I took it around to various detailers and the Chevy dealership and apparently someone used acid on them and let it sit too long at some point in its life. I purchased fritz and a fritz polishing ball and PB polish but I couldn't seem to make much of any difference to it. What am I doing wrong and are these rims salvageable? The dealership thinks I need to send them away to the US to be fixed for a couple thousand dollars. I'm considering aftermarket rims, but I want to try and salvage these as they're nice rims.

I'm an amateur so please give detailed instructions if you have a solution.

Thank you guys. 👍

[57Rambler]

I'm going to venture that those chrome wheels have a clearcoat finish on them and the clearcoat is what was damaged. The dealer is probably referring to having them stripped and re-coated.

[Canuckguy]

Yes I read somewhere that GM clearcoats the rims. How difficult would it be for me to strip the clearcoat, if that's the only solution?

[57Rambler]

Methylene chloride should take it off, but it is pretty nasty stuff and the U.S. EPA has finally decided to ban commercial availability, beginning late this year. It may already be banned in Canada, not sure.

A couple commercially-available products with methylene chloride are :

Busch Clear Coat Remover :

Clear Coat Remover 16 fl oz

Klean-Strip Aircraft Peeler :

Klean Strip | Aircraft(R) Peeler™


Don't know if you can still find these available. And shipment to Canada would probably be a problem. If you can find them, you'd need to take the appropriate safety precautions.

Alternately, some means of mechanical removal of the clearcoat, perhaps by wet sanding, may be the only choice.

My thought would be to check with reputable, local auto body shops to see what they could do for you. They should be able to do either chemical or mechanical method of removal. And then re-clearcoat them for you. No reason to have to send them to the U.S. to have that done, like your dealer was suggesting.

[Eldorado2k]

Chrome polish is usually very mild stuff... And I’ve never heard of chrome wheels having clearcoat on them. I know it may sound crazy, but try some Mothers Mag & Aluminum Polish with a microfiber applicator.

Start with a test spot of course, but I’ve had that stuff work wonders on chrome wheels.

[rvalero]

There was a clear coat on the outer barrel of my 3 pc wheels. I left a wheel cleaner on them too long, and ended up with hazy spots all over them.



I was able to get rid of the spots by polishing them like paint on a car.

[Mike Phillips]

I know most factory ALUMINUM rims are clearcoated as this solves the problem of oxidation, thus less unhappy masses that don't know how to maintain polished aluminum.

Chrome is very stout in and of itself. For the most part it's impervious to most detailing chemicals. ACID-based wheel cleaners are specifically formulated and intended to be used on chrome wheels.


My guess is they are clearcoated polished aluminum wheels. If so, the paint used for wheels is MUCH harder than the paint used on a car's body panels and thus much harder to correct.


Whatever you do, always TEST whatever you're going to try to a small area and make sure you're getting the results you hope and dream about before applying to the entire wheel.

[Dr Oldz]

Those look like chrome clad wheels. Basically chrome plated plastic. I can’t tell for sure but guessing from the wheel barrels... if that’s the case hopefully a compound/polish that you use on the paint usually cleans it up.

[Eldorado2k]

Can we get an update?