The inside is sealed with a silicone bead at the joining point for the center and two pieces of the barrel of the wheel. Of course, that's not where it's leaking. It's leaking at where the tire bead meets the chrome lip - probably the first place water gets to sit when I drive around in the rain. That being said, I just saw a speed yellow 997 Cab today on I-5 and it had chrome wheels!

Makes me wonder if the chroming process / quality for my wheels is just not superior. When I had this issue before, it seems they use a subcontractor to chrome their lips. I dunno, maybe all the manufacturers do??

 

This is the downside of chrome lips. It peels and corrodes but it is a hell of a lot easier to keep clean then a polish lip.

I've had 2 sets of my chrome lips do the same thing from various highend manufacturers that are not DPE. My new rims for my Panamera coming in have chrome lip as well...I guess I just haven't learned my lesson yet...haha

 

For what it's worth, I ran a set of 19s (SSR GT3s, remember those?) on my M5 for 5 years and Good Lord, talk about a fight to keep those things scratch and leak free. Twice a year would take these things to my wheel guy and he would clean/refinish/balance each wheel. And I was unbelievably careful about taking care of the wheels. I either got a bad set from the factory or the weather here decimated the wheels. I LOVE deep lip wheels on wide body cars but I'm not going back to chrome. Possible that a higher-end manufacturer like HRE might not have these issues.

Stuck the Sport Classics on the cab that I purchase through the local dealer and love them. The only thing I don't like about these wheels is that the silver lip has a visual impact on the overall visual perception of the size of the wheel. It's a 19 that looks like a 17.

KS

 

Aaron,

Thanks for the suggestion. Right before I was about to pull the trigger on some new wheels, I figured I'd give Skip's Wheelwerks a call. His website had a number of Pcars on it so I figured I'd just ask what they could do.

Turns out that the chroming process on wheels is not as strong over the past couple years than in the past because of new environmental standards that weaken the bonding process (said Skip). So this peeling thing is not unusual. The upshot was that he was able to grind off all the peeling chrome on the inside of the lip, then apply an epoxy primer to the bare aluminum up to the intact chrome, sealing the entire circumference. All for $100/wheel.

I figured for that price, I'd give it a shot. And I have to admit it, I just love the look of my current wheels.

So far so good. Had to have new tires put on the rears anyway (they were down to cords). I'm going to see how things go and update in a couple months. Thanks for the suggestion!

Ron