To polish or not to polish

[SVO2.3]

Should I polish my factory wheels? (black 86)
They look good on a black car.

[brsvo]

Personal preference IMHO. If they need redoing for other reasons then I see no reason why not. If they are in good stock condition I would leave them alone, Bruce

[svono50]

From the examples I have seen, from factory refinished to chrome, I have to say I like the look of a bit of machining marks on our wheels but that is just me. If you like the fully polished look, then go for it. I ended up simply stripping the factory clear on mine, which had fogged badly, and did a light hand polish on them to bring the fresh machined look back to them. From there I left them raw and would wax them on occasion and give them a quick hand polish once a year when I brought the car out of storage. If you plan on daily driving your car I would certainly suggest a good clear powder coat over the polished finish to preserve it. YMMV.


Here is a pic or two of my hand polished examples for reference:

Before pic, when I purchased the car:
8726

Couple years after, hand polished and inserts painted:
8727

Closeup with an 'old' digital camera back in '98:
8728

[tommyb]

Personally I would not polish a set of nice factory wheels, but if that is what you really like go for it. I am a fan of stock wheels just what I remember as correct back in the day, I don't even run my stock wheels as I have had several sets of 17's that I like to run regularly one of these sets was polished aluminum which really looked good because they were supposed to be that way. Best of luck as you go forward!

[dagenham]

The clear was already stripped off of my wheels so I cleaned them up and painted the inserts argent silver. I don't have any good pics of them though. I left the machined look and they look pretty close to factory original.

[SVO2.3]

After striping off the clear found them to be faily scratched up so polished 'em and painted slots and lug holes charcoal to match bumper trim.
Would have prefered to keep them stock but I must say I like the look on a black car.

[TheSVOTrust]

I sent a set of NOS wheels to a company in CA in 1993 to have "CHOMED". At the time "value of NOS wheels was about $300" and I had 13. The cost with shipping back was almost $1000. I have kept them in boxes for 23 years moving them thousands of miles IN HOPES of putting them on a Black 86 if I can find one! LOL

IMO they only look good on Black (and maybe white cars)
Mark