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Polished vs Chrome

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Old 03-06-2018, 06:30 PM
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Down
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Default Polished vs Chrome

Right up front, this may be a pretty unrealistic post but I'm going to try anyway. Can anyone tell which of these below is polished and which is chromed? I have no eye for this kinda thing, so I don't know if it's even possible to tell via a picture of if you have to see it in person but I'm having no fun trying to chase down a center cap replacement so any help would be much appreciated.
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Old 03-06-2018, 06:39 PM
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Phanni
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The center cap on the right is a 'chromed' plastic. it is meant to be installed on wheels that are polished to a high gloss at the factory. The one on the left is simply a center from a non polished painted C-5 (early) wheel. There are no Chromed C-5 5 spoke wheels (from the factory) on these wheels. People mistake the highly polished aluminum wheels as being chromed white often. I'm sure there a few folks out there that did get them chromed after market. Some of the early 'wagon wheels' were chromed.
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Old 03-06-2018, 06:47 PM
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Originally Posted by Phanni
The center cap on the right is a 'chromed' plastic. it is meant to be installed on wheels that are polished to a high gloss at the factory. The one on the left is simply a center from a non polished painted C-5 (early) wheel. There are no Chromed C-5 5 spoke wheels (from the factory) on these wheels. People mistake the highly polished aluminum wheels as being chromed white often. I'm sure there a few folks out there that did get them chromed after market. Some of the early 'wagon wheels' were chromed.
OK, that would definitely make some sense then. The cap on the right is off my car with Z16 wheels and lost a tab. I bought the cap on the left from eBay, as I was assured it was a "polished" center cap and the logo matched. Once it arrived and didn't match I wondered "Did I get the wrong center cap or am I wrong and my car has chromed knock off wheels", lol.
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Last edited by Down; 03-06-2018 at 06:48 PM.
Old 03-06-2018, 11:17 PM
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Vetteman Jack
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To me, it looks like the one on the left is for a high polished wheel while the one on the right is for a chrome wheel (non-factory). The painted wheels I had on my '00 had center caps that were painted just like the wheel.
Old 03-06-2018, 11:30 PM
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wamara
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Originally Posted by Vetteman Jack
To me, it looks like the one on the left is for a high polished wheel while the one on the right is for a chrome wheel (non-factory). The painted wheels I had on my '00 had center caps that were painted just like the wheel.
The cap on the left does not resemble the one for the stock painted wheel at all. Also, if memory serves correctly, the OEM painted cap did not have a colored C5 emblem as represented on both of these caps.
Old 03-07-2018, 08:52 PM
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6speedsteve
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The left one is for a stock polished wheel, I don't have one right now to look at, but I think it has an aluminum stamping attached to the plastic cap that is polished & clear coated, I can see the orange peel in the clear.

The right one looks to be chrome.
Old 03-07-2018, 09:53 PM
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Mike98SilVert
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Originally Posted by Vetteman Jack
To me, it looks like the one on the left is for a high polished wheel while the one on the right is for a chrome wheel (non-factory). The painted wheels I had on my '00 had center caps that were painted just like the wheel.
Old 03-08-2018, 01:07 AM
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Originally Posted by Mike98SilVert
Great...now I'm really confused...
Old 03-08-2018, 12:18 PM
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Here is stock polished cap it has an aluminum polished cover over the cap, when I looked at the back you can see embossed in the front of the cap is a Pontiac emblem.

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