Clearcoat on Aluminum?

O

OverPressured

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May 8, 2009
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I bought a set of mickey thompson Classic IIs. It says in the directions that there is no clear coat on these wheels and they need to be polished regularly to keep their shine. I was wondering if it would be alright to polish them up real nice then shoot them with a rattle can of clear coat while their still new? Think that would look weird at all on the wheel? Any certain way i should prep the surface?
 
Don't do it. You have about a 10% chance they will stay that way after you clear them. If there is even a slight crack or pin hole in the clear the aluminum will corrode under the coating and there is no way to fix it without sanding the clear off. Whenever you mount a tire they will most likely chip it. And if you use the spray clear (i.e.Rust Oleum) it will turn yellow. I'm speaking from first hand experience. I had to strip the factory clear off some aftermarket wheels and re-sand and polish them. Took about 5hrs which was at least 4 hrs longer than it takes me to polish my truck wheels which were bare aluminum. There is no easy way out, sorry.
 
There is some sort of top secret clear coat that the rim shops use...But its expensive...If I could remember to clear coat my rims with there secret clear coat was around $60 per rim...I thought the clear was auto clear..but its not that.I was to late to clear coat anyways because I bought them second hand and if you don't clear the when new,the small pits will peal the clear...Right now I'm using Gords polish that has a sealer...Will see how that holds out...
 
When I restored mine I used a catalyzed urethane clear in a rattle can that I got from eastwoodco.com. It lasted me about a year before it got nasty and needed re-clearing.
you could use a non-catalyzed clear and use lacquer thinner to remove the clear when you wanted to.
 
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