Advice on choosing aluminum rims

[Lugnutt]

I've been looking into getting some new tires and rims for my 72 chevy 4x4 short stepside. I'm looking at going with 15"x10" 6 lug rims and 12.50 tires. I thought I had made my mind up to get the Mickey Thompson Classic II polished aluminum rims but baulked when I read some of the reviews on-line. It seems that their aluminum rims have no clear coating and are very dificult to keep looking nice. Does anybody know of another rim manufacturer that make a similar "classic" looking polished aluminum rim with a protective clear coat? I know about the black coated aluminum and the white and black steel wheels. I'd like to stay with the exposed aluminum look. I'm also not looking for the newer "sidebiter" style either.

Thanks for any leads

[Mike C]

Polishing wheels is just something you need to resign your self to if you want polished rims. You can get clear coated rims, but eventually the clear coat will fail and that will look like crap. I you plan on only keeping the truck a short time, or possibly changing wheels in a few years, Discount Tire has some nice looking clear coated rims with holes in them. I think ProComp makes a set as well.

IMO, just get used to polishing the wheels when you rotate the tires every 5k miles. I have two sets of Alcoas, one single wheel, and one dual, and polishing is just something you do once a year or so.

[CTENTA1]

Polished rims without clearcoat is the only way to go. The clear coat eventually peals off over time. Heat, cold, sun, water will damage the clear coat. You would eventually have to get the clear coat completley taken off and get them polished for them to look good.

[Lugnutt]

That's a shame the clear coat wears off, I've got a 40 foot deisel motorhome with aluminum wheels clear coated. I hope I won't have to start polishing them too soon, they're really big.

Thanks for the feed-back

[a2tripp]

Originally Posted by Lugnutt

That's a shame the clear coat wears off, I've got a 40 foot deisel motorhome with aluminum wheels clear coated. I hope I won't have to start polishing them too soon, they're really big.

Thanks for the feed-back

i would try wax instead of polish for coated rims

[Tex_50613]

after polishing a aluminum rim apply a liberal coat of wax and it will stay clean and shinny longer, learned that trick from a OTR trucker friend of mine