drwet

I finally broke down and bought a set of Torque Thrust wheels from American Racing and I'm not looking forward to keeping them polished. I'm thinking about clear coating them. Anyone have any suggestions on what product to use, or any other advice?

TheSkunkWorks

Nyalic.

3JsVette

Some of the billet wheel companies offer "clear" powder coating as an option. I have only seen wheels from Budnik done this way. I have to admit if you didn't know the wheels were cleared you wouldn't realize it. It's just about invisable. Of course it was wasn't cheap. I want to say about $75.00 or more a wheel.

AirborneSilva

You could try this as a solution:

http://search.eastwood.com/search?w=...m%20protectant

drwet

I had never heard of this stuff. I checked out their website and it sounds too good to be true. Anyone have any experience with it?

7t9l82

clear powder coat will take some of the shine out of it. try clear ceramic coat, most powder coaters can apply it.

Go Vette Go

I have used a lot of it! And yes - it is true. I have used it on wheels, rockers and polished aluminum intakes with 100% success. I did the diff in my 76 about 5 years ago, got to look it over this week when the car was up on a lift being inspected. Looks as good today as it did 5 years ago!

drwet

So I ordered up some Nyalic to use on my new wheels. Now should I coat the wheels before I mount the tires, or should I mount the tires then coat the wheels. I'm worried about the effect mounting the tires will have on the coating, as well as the soap solution I use as a lubricant affecting the coating. Any advice?

TheSkunkWorks

Any mounting problems will more likely be due to the mounting equipment utilized and/or the tech using it. Suggest you go ahead and finish the wheels and then have the tires mounted only by a shop properly set up for and experienced with higher-end wheels. Maybe I've been lucky, but I've never had a truly professional shop with modern equipment screw up an expensive rim's finish, including wheels as wide as 14". YMMV

drwet

Thanks for the reply but that doesn't really answer my question. The instructions for the Nyalic say that it takes 30 days for the product to fully cure and warn about being careful with it until then. I would prefer not to wait that long to mount the tires. Therefore it seems to me that it would make more sense to mount the tires and then coat the wheels, even if it means dealing with masking off the tires. Anyone who has actually used the product who can comment?

7t9l82

cure time may not mean you can't do anything to them. check with the manufacturer on what you want to do.