Art Deco

Not a fan of black wheels on dark colors and chrome is too much. Polished aluminum looks good. What material are the base C8 wheels made of ? Anyone gone this route ?

thanks,

BJ67

Have them chemically stripped and polished by a high end wheel repair company. They are aluminum of course. Did just that on a 2021 camaro wheel.

dohabandit

They are aluminum, and you can powder coat them just about any color you like, including silver, chrome, gunmetal, etc etc.
I was told by the powder coating company that did mine that there is starting to be a shortage in supply of the powder coating material though.

It cost me $520 for 4 wheels.

Avanti

Yes, if they're stripped. I've done so with other GM wheels in the past. Some are more of an issue doing so than others. One cannot tell without trying it. All the best.

Poorhousenext

Have you ever had Polished ALUMINUM wheels on a car?
I have for the same reason(s) you mentioned.

They have their on problem, that problem can be a real "Pain", POLISHING, to keep them looking good.

Depending on if you are an Owner or if you are a Driver, "EFFECTS THE AMOUNT OF WORK IT TAKES TO KEEP THEM LOOKING GOOD!"

I'm a Driver, being so means my Polished Wheels on the below car, requires Polishing them, to keep them Look Good.
Around 4 Hours a wheel to keep them looking good outside an inside of them, twice a year,
Then once a month, polishing outside of them, (about 1 1/2 hrs per wheel per month), to keep them looking good.

If you are an owner, that does not drive their Corvette that munch, an never when it might rain, then they are not that much of a pain to maintain, outside wise. Keeping the inside of the wheel looking as good. takes more time.
Design of wheel can make it easier of harder to maintain them.

I'm with you about Chrome on the car below. Chrome has too much shine to work on it., In the below case, the car was built to work with the wheels....LOL Bought the wheels, then built to car to work with them.





Depending on color of your C8. chrome might be a better choice than polished . I would never use Polished wheels on car below. White needs something that stands out / Contrast in my opinion to work with color.
There is already enough Black trim on car, so Chrome breaks that up, adds a little "PoP". Polished does not do that.

BJ67

When you chemically strip a painted aluminum wheel and have them polished or polish them yourself, they are then powdercoated with clear and no more polishing necessary. The wheel always has that perfect polished look which looks better than chrome imo. I like chrome wheels alot, but a highly polished aluminum wheel just looks even better again imo.

BJ67

The C8 trident wheel is so damn ugly, no matter what you do to it. Thats primarily the problem with the C8 OE offering, ugly style wheels and either silver drab painted, even worse black painted , no win no matter what. Thats why the aftermarket is producing so many wheels for the C8 and the need for good looking C8 wheels was obvious before actual production of the C8.

Poorhousenext

Yes, but having them clear coated, adds a Coating Shine to them, Vs that of Polished raw metal!

Highly polished with Clear,Coating was the Cheap Man's way an about the only way to get Bright Shiny wheels, when chrome was banned. Did that when building customized Bikes back in early 2000s. Cheaper than having wheels chromed.

What works for you is fine with me. Polished or Painted.

George_L

Here is another option for you. Send them to Wheel Craft and have them finish the wheels in Black Ice. It isn't real dark and has a great shine. I had my stock C7 Z51 wheels done in a darker shade than than Black Ice because they were getting lost on the car from a distance but I still wanted black as all my trim is dark. I'm thrilled with the quality and the cost was under $1K. They even have an exchange program with factory C8 wheels so you can get the new wheels without waiting for yours to finished and shipped then ship yours back in the same boxes with their supplied label. The process results in a very robust finish that is warrantied for 5 years. They do the black ice coating for one of the major forged wheel manufactures. They also have Bright Ice (chrome) and Midnight Ice. Go to their website and check them out. They have the best customer service I have ever experienced. Here is a link to their C8 gallery.


Wheel Craft Black Ice Finish


C7 Z51 Darker Finish

C7 Z51 Darker Finish

Poorhousenext

Reason I choose, to go with GM Trident look, only concave to move the tires outboard look. To the average person, they look stock as supplied by GM that they've seen in pictures. They are use to seeing that ugly.

They don't look like your trying to make it look different.

Same as going with GM's 5VM carbon fiber layup look. I want the car to look stock design with it's CF layup pattern.

Another thing I did, that's not stock, was the engine cover, I just went form Black to having it painted the same color as the valve covers. Not stock, but to most people it looks stock, Vs going with Bodycolor painted cover.

I'm only trying to keep it looking, option wise, as GM Design Department, designed it.
People think the wheels are stock, and what they expect to see.

My Goal was never to make it look modified, or different. I don't have the need to do that.
It's just a look, that doesn't make it look like I'm throwing Dollars at it, More or less not to show off.

Cars are sort of like a mans wife, she may look ugly to others, but to you she looks beautiful. But like a car, sometimes they look their best when leaving....

Walt White Coupe

Unfortunately GM does not offer a polished aluminum wheel like they did for the C6 and C7. A polished aluminum wheel that is clear coated as the C6 and C7 wheels were is a piece of cake to keep clean and polishing them takes no time at all. They are the best finish for durability, brightness and ease of cleaning.

Motorsport R86 Polished Aluminum Wheel

Gumby Polished Aluminum Wheel