RS Chrome Wheels appear to be tarnished

PMorris

Member
I have a 2012 RS with chromed wheels. About 2-3 years ago I noticed that the wheels appeared to be tarnished. I attempted to clean them and it appeared as if the chrome was wiping off! The wheels now have the appearance of cheap chromed plastic. Has anyone else experienced this? It looks as if it will be very expensive to re-chrome the wheels, and even powder-coating may prove pretty expensive when you consider having to unmount all the tires.

Thanks for any suggestions or feedback.
 

PMorris

Member
You're right. I dug up the invoice and sure enough: aluminum wheels. So any idea what can be done, if anything, to restore the wheels? Apparently, somewhere along the way, someone sprayed something on the wheels that has marred the finish.
 

Knit

Active member
Do a search on “clean polished aluminum wheels” and there are a few hits on products and techniques.
 

Trekker

Trekker
PMorris:

We have a 2008 RS. In the last 6 months all of the wheels have turned ugly, some worse than others. It appears that a heavy clear coat was applied over the aluminum (by Roadtrek??), and now after 10 years in the Florida sun, it has crazed and cracked, some worse than others. You can actually pick small pieces of it off with a fingernail. I think the only solution is to have the wheels stripped and re-polished. There are custom auto shops around that could do this, I'm sure, but would involve removing the tires and downtime on the rig. It's disappointing, but in the overall scheme of things, I've got bigger fish to fry, and I shudder to think of the cost.
 
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PMorris

Member
I showed the vehicle to a wheel repair shop and they said that although these are aluminum wheels, the high polish look is achieved by coating the wheels with chromed plastic. Don't recall what they called the process, but they were quite familiar with it. They said the wheels can be stripped and recoated with chromed or paint, but they cannot be polished. I'm probably going to have them stripped and painted, as they claimed the paint will be more durable. $180 (US) per wheel for strip and paint, $220 (US) per wheel to strip and recoat and chrome.
 

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