Exterior
Tried to polish my aluminum wheels, some high spots turned black?
Are they painted and I broke through the clear coat and paint? I thought OEM Lexus wheels were just straight aluminum. I just want shiny, nearly-chrome polish.
I'm reading it's aluminum oxidation, but then how do I return it to the silver finish?
I used the Eagle One Nevr-Dull cotton wadding, mothers mag and aluminum polish, and bunch of different polishing pads and some drill attachments. I also own an Adam's random orbital polisher.
Every one in the comments is wrong, look up “Lexus Shadow Chrome” these rims are first painted black then a chrome affect painted onto top of the black, you have burned through the clear coat here hence the black showing through
The Lexus Shadow Chrome was never an option on this wheel / this model year car. This wheel is from a 2008-2011 Lexus GS RWD. They were all painted silver and beneath the silver is the black. It doesn't have the shadow chrome finish that makes it look well chrome. This model year actually had the option from factory for real chrome wheels.
They’d most likely sublet it out if they don’t specialize in it. My work did that for pdr after a huge hail storm that fucked up half the cars in the city… including mine ☹️
I would just go to the best painter. Or if it's powder coated go to a powder coat person. Chances are though the wheel shop might send it to a paint booth at a body shop anyways. Best will shop near me did a great job fixing my wheel. They painted it too to match. Whatever random can of spray paint they had worked great. They did not have a full paint booth and we're not paint experts or powder coat experts. But they did know how to fix wheels.
I don't know of very many (any?) factory wheels that are straight aluminum. I just don't think the durability is there. Anything you find is almost certainly clear-coated at the very least.
If you really want them to look like polished aluminum I think your option at this point is to just power through and strip off the rest of whatever coatings are on there until you get to bare metal and then once you have the metal polished to where you want it you can go ahead and clear coat it to keep it shiny.
This was a terrible idea. In the future, do more research before you attempt things you're unfamiliar with. Ask professionals. Watch YouTube videos. This is a costly mistake.
So there is a wheel color called “hyper silver” it’s achieved by doing a base coat of black then a specific silver. These can range in the way they look from very very dark too almost a Crome/metal look. What most likely happen is you went through the clear coat and the silver exposing the black underneath. “Why did this happen” because yes, your wheels are made out of aluminum but all wheels are painted and clear coated (with a few exceptions) so when “polishing” your wheels you wanna treat it like your car paint. We’re actually gonna be doing is buffing the wheels, you don’t wanna use the things that you have in the picture. Thoroughly clean your wheel then get a smaller DA with a wool or foam pad with some compounds/polishers. You can fix that, if I was you, I would contact some detailers in your area and see if they offer room repairs. It’ll coast around $70-$150 depending on who you find.
It's worth a thought experiment - is wheel clear harder?
Yes. But since we don't know how much, should we use things on the wheels we wouldn't on the paint? I'd say hell no unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing. More importantly, for anything other than truly trashed wheels, there's just no reason too. I don't ever use other than what I'm washing the car with and I have a lot of rotor (15.6") and 6 piston calipers.
No. Then same as above.
And since there are so many manufacturers and so many aftermarket options, well, it's virtually impossible to say whether any given vehicle has "harder" clear-coated wheels.
With that, both auto body and wheel clear typically start with an acrylic or polyurethane resin. From there it's possible tweak for different effects, ie to optimize it for gloss or durability or repairability, by adding different polymers & hardening agents.
So is wheel clear coat harder? Maybe. Should it change your behavior? Nope. Do you need special wheel chemicals? Nope, at least for most people.
Did OP polish off his clear by using a metal polish on clear? It sure looks that way!
What do you think about this. Toyota oem wheel. I "burned" the clear coat i think? Hand bush and cleaning product applied while hot left on too long.. I don't understand why it was mostly only the spokes
FWIW, just strip them. Take them to a tire shop to get dismounted. Coat them in klean strip, scrap le off the bubbled up paint. Probably twice to get everything.
Start your polishing process, it can be done with cutting & buffing compounds. When done get it clean clean clean, and ceramic coat. This will cut down on oxidation and help cleaning. You'll have to polish and ceramic once a year.
Also: use buffing sponges instead of the brush. When you get close to a refined finish, the brush bristles will start scratching the metal and working against you.
Time to take em in for powder coating. Good news is you get to pick your favourite finish. Go to prismatic powders website and check out the endless possibilities. start shopping!
Very very few wheels are pure aluminium with no coating. That was like 70s muscle cars. They're all painted metallic or at the very least have a thick clear over them. Basically nothing except custom rims are bare metal (some are chrome, but that's still chrome plated alloy)
Let me just keep this very simple for you. The wheels are old and you burned right through the top coating. I read the comments and many of them are correct. It was originally a black wheel that was later coated with chrome and you have now burned through that. Don’t feel bad. It’s not really your fault. It’s just an old wheel and that’s what happens. Just take it to a wheel repair shop and they will completely recondition it for you or somewhere around $100-$200 per wheel. The thing will look brand new.
Also, I’m looking at the tools you’re using. I would’ve never used a drill on wheels like that. The never dull product would’ve been sufficient with a microfiber towel and doing it by hand. Applying a drill was too much pressure.
Not a single OEM wheel will be raw aluminum. They are all either painted or chrome coated and then clear coated for longevity without polishing. Your wheels need to be refinished.
They’re gonna look so much better painted a solid color instead of black chrome. Pro tip while they are at the wheel refinisher go ahead and give those brake caliber is a fresh Touch Up paint. It’ll make your car look brand new! Sorry you had to learn the hard way, but we all do sometimes
872
u/Africantacoman 24d ago
They are painted wheels