Opinions Needed On Polished Wheels... Clear Coat or Not??

[Smoke-N-Shot]

On the fence about whether or not to purchase polished CCW aluminum wheels that are not clear coated. I now have Y2K OEM wheels that are clear coated and I think that they are very easy to clean and to take care of. Interested in hearing some opinions as to whether or not the non-clear coated ones are that much more work or if in fact they may be a PITA all together... Thanks for your opinions in advance…

[Hrdtop00]

I am a fan of clear-coated wheels. Might not be as shiny as chrome but they don't require the same amount of maintenance as chrome.

[wamara]

Hi Nick,
Unfortunately your question brings to mind the old adage of one man's treasure being another man's garbage. How much do you enjoy the tinkering, cleaning aspect of car ownership? I have a friend with a Ferrari and 2 Astons, and although he rarely drives them, he is always tinkering with, cleaning, polishing, and waxing them. He enjoys this very much. I don't find this (or at least the thought of doing this) that pleasurable (although I will confess that once I bite the bullet I don't mind it that much, but I certainly am not doing it even once a month).

Secondly, how anal are you? If a dried waterspot on the wheel surface is going to bug you, you will find yourself doing a lot of cleaning and polishing. If you can let the little stuff go, and tell yourself that a good twice a year cleanup will suffice, you should be OK. I guess the point I'm making is you need to know yourself (as opposed to who you'd like to be ) and be honest with yourself. I've seen people here on the forum complain about CCW wheel maintenance, and others say it is no big deal. Confusing, I know. Good luck with your decision.

[comp]

if you clean no,, if you run threw car wash yes

[DPG]

contact "franktank" here on the forum. He has a set of CCW that arent clear coated. He will let you know how it is to maintain these wheels.

[Smoke-N-Shot]

Thanks everyone for your replies thus far...

[MYCoupe]

Personally I'm a big fan of clear coated wheels (painted or unpainted). It just makes the maintenance that much easier. I don't have a lot of free time as it is so the last thing I would want is to spend a considerable amount of time cleaning and polishing my wheels.

[rocco16]

I'm not aware of any custom wheel maker that offers clearcoat on polished wheels.
(But, that doesn't mean there aren't any....)

If I could have found someone who did offer clearcoat on polished, I would certainly have considered them. Keeping polished aluminum looking good is a job that takes me about 1.5hrs every couple of weeks or so... and that is just for polished rims (painted centers).
A fully-polished wheel style like my HRE 540's or the CCW Classic would take about 1.5hr/PER WHEEL!


Just got this from the CCW website:
"What finishes can I get for my wheels?
There are currently 3 finishes available for the 3-piece wheels;
1) High Polished Center with High Polished Lip Lip
2) Shotpeened and Anodized Center with High Polished Lip
3) Brushed and Anodized Center with High Polished Lip NEW!"

....no clearcoat mentioned.

EDIT: see this http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=1328296

Larry
code5coupe

[ToplessTexan]

Nick, as fussy as you are I'm thinking you'd eventually hate the work of maintaining an uncoated wheel, especially any kind of basket design. Which model were you looking at?