Hello,

To the people with polished lips (or entire wheels)...are your wheels clear coated or do you have them un-coated to maintain the brilliant shine?

I am having some wheels refinished and decided to have them clear coat them. I am not sure if I made the right decision yet.

Thanks.

 

I had a set of wheels turned so the clearcoat was removed from the lips, and they look absolutely great. No maintenance issues, and a little Mothers wheel polish always make them look great.

iForged is making me a new set of rims now with brushed centers, polished lips, but the wheels fully clearcoated. He (Vincent) said he has no way to just clearcoat the centers.

So, I have a feeling that when they come in I will have the lips turned again to a clear polished finish.

I'll let you know.

Look at yours when done and then you can always have them turned to polish the lips.

I have added a photo of my current wheels. The centers are clearcoated and the lips are polished. I don't have a more direct photo of the wheels available but you can get an idea.

 

Go with chrome lips or anodized, alot less headache's

 

Hmmm now I am not so sure I should go with the clear coated polished lips.

I guess worse comes to worse, I can just strip the lips of the clear and keep the nice polished surface.

Hopefully it comes out better than I am thinking and I will be happy.

 

That's what I did. The wheels had a little curb rash that was repaired but to turn them after the repair they had to pilish the rims and turn out the clearcoat. That exposed the lip. Bingo. I loved it.

iForged said he can only clearcoat the whole wheel. So I will again have the shop that fixed the current wheels turn the new ones to expose the lip by polishing and thereby rid the clearcoat on the lips.

I found that it is easier to clean the wheels where the center portion is clearcoated.

So we'll see. You can do the same.

 

After having clearcoated polished lips, clearcoated brushed lips and now uncoated polished lips I prefer the non-clearcoat polished ones.

I don't mind polishing them from time to time and they look great IMO.

 

Exactly! Most clearcoated rims I have seen degrade over time.

So I also prefer the polished surface.

 

It is hard to imagine why iForged can't clearcoat just the center on a 3-piece wheel. They buy their rim parts from outside vendors so why the problem with just polishing them?
If removing the clearcoat also removes some of the metal, I would encourage you to push back and insist that the outers NOT be clearcoated. Spun rim parts are not that strong to begin with.

 

The wheels he is preparing for me are one piece forged and Vincent stated he has no way to clearcoat the centers and not the rims!

What do I know? I'll check with him again.

Your other points are very well taken btw, but there is actually only a microscopic layer taken off when they are spun and polished. So that does not concern me, and the finish is just superb!

 

Yeah, because its all just one piece. Unlike a 3pc wheel where its three seperate pieces. he has to clear coat the whole thing on a 1pc. You should just do the whole wheel in brushed.

 

I did originally think of doing that, but the polished rim looks so good with the brushed centers that i decided to go that way.

 

I have champion wheels, and they now clearcoat the entire wheel.. so the lip is not as shiney as the prior years back... I like the NON clearcoated lip better... I am looking into having the clear removed from the wheel lips and having them high speed polished..

 

Removing clear coat does nothing to the metal actually.

Clear coat comes off just like paint...with paint stripper.

 

Any wheel shop that does good work repairing wheels can do it. Not an expensive deal.

I would not use paint stripper. You can't control it well, and it could cause damage to the metal.

Have a shop turn them. The results are fantastic.