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I know this has come up before but I didn't want to dig thru the archives to find it. Did any Z06 Speedline or Alcoa wheel ever leave the factory chromed instead of painted? I pretty sure I read somewhere that they weren't but the dealerships would have them chromed.
I agree that there were no Z06 chromed from the factory.
However, the '04 Commemorative Edition had polished that can look almost like chrome. I had them on my '99 as shown below.
I actually like the Z06/Z16 polished wheels the best. Interesting because I just had a conversation with someone who had a set for sale and he said they were off of his friends 2005 C6 Indy pace car replica. I said they were C5 only and he told me that I was wrong and they used them on the 2005 Indy pace car models also. I stopped arguing with him at that point.
I am always a fan of the polished look. Even with a clear coat on it as these would have from GM. It has more depth and a better luster to me. Chrome looks good but is almost garish by comparison at a nit-picky level.
This does have me thinking... I need to go to storage and look at my oe speedlines and see how the paint is. I may sell them. But if I have polishing wheels anyway for my CCWs.... I wonder what it would take to remove the layers of paint and polish them out. Probably more project than I care to invest in them.
I am always a fan of the polished look. Even with a clear coat on it as these would have from GM. It has more depth and a better luster to me. Chrome looks good but is almost garish by comparison at a nit-picky level.
This does have me thinking... I need to go to storage and look at my oe speedlines and see how the paint is. I may sell them. But if I have polishing wheels anyway for my CCWs.... I wonder what it would take to remove the layers of paint and polish them out. Probably more project than I care to invest in them.
I'd say the polished Z06 wheels are the second best looking, and by far the best looking high performance wheel GM put on the C5. The glint off each spoke as they roll in the sun is perfect.
I have read that attempts to polish the painted wheels are fraught with high effort, and sometimes poor results. The castings/forgings destined for paint were not necessarily inspected to the same degree, with greater flaws in the aluminum appearance acceptable for paint. That may or may not be accurate, since all Z06 wheels would have to be sufficiently sound to be on what is essentially a race car.
I have read that attempts to polish the painted wheels are fraught with high effort, and sometimes poor results. The castings/forgings destined for paint were not necessarily inspected to the same degree, with greater flaws in the aluminum appearance acceptable for paint. That may or may not be accurate, since all Z06 wheels would have to be sufficiently sound to be on what is essentially a race car.
I have "new production" painted wheels from Speedline, and the quality isn't great. Can see the issues through the paint. The outer faces are fine, only the back of the spokes have issues and it's only two out of 4 wheels that have problems. I would say what you have read is 100% accurate regardless of what GM writes in their brochure.
The Alcoa branded forged wheels I don't think have these issues.
It does leave me to wonder. Because the glory of a bare polished wheel is that you can blend blemishes away such as light curb rash. Unless the issue is that there is a lot of filler or base coat used to present a smooth appearance.
I am always a fan of the polished look. Even with a clear coat on it as these would have from GM. It has more depth and a better luster to me. Chrome looks good but is almost garish by comparison at a nit-picky level..
agree completely, not a fan of chrome wheels on a non-chrome car, looks cheap.
agree completely, not a fan of chrome wheels on a non-chrome car, looks cheap.
Oh yeah!?.. Disagree completely, my car has chromies, I'm a fan, your black wheels looks really cheap, really really cheap, and are! .. So there!... I love my chrome wheels! 😡
Im not a fan of all black wheels at all. On the other hand, sometimes a combination of color along with a bright metal element works. (See pic below). I prefer the concept of wheels as a complimentary accessory to the vehicles presentation.
I don’t think you can go wrong with chrome with a red or black car, but polished or machined might look better on a silver car, or other mid tones.
Oh yeah!?.. Disagree completely, my car has chromies, I'm a fan, your black wheels looks really cheap, really really cheap, and are! .. So there!... I love my chrome wheels! 😡
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GM did not offer any chromed wheels for the C5 - only painted or high polished and for the Z06 only painted with the exception of the 2004 CE wheels which were polished.
However, there were dealers that offered a chromed version of the stock wheels as a dealer add on and there were vendors like Ecklers and West Coast Corvette that offered a chrome exchange program using factory wheels.
03-11-2023, 11:52 AM
Chrome Z06 Speedline or Alcoa wheels
