Are They Under The Clear?

[ORANGERT]

Today I rotated my tires and took the opportunity to detail the wheels. After washing I clayed the wheels including the barrels. During polishing with a foam pad and M205, by hand, I noticed it wasn`t removing the scratches/swirls on the polished exterior of the coated aluminum wheels. I tried a microfiber and Megs UC to no avail. It appears these swirls may be under the factory clear coat? They cannot be felt with a fingernail and the surface feels smooth. Has anyone else seen this on factory coated wheels? Or maybe I just need to get more aggressive with a powerball or flitz and a different compound/polish? I`m leery of removing to much of the factory coating. Thanks!

[Setec Astronomy]

Yes, under the clear.

[EXPDetailing]

Try machine polishing them instead of elbow grease.

[RaysWay]

Are those factory forged Alcoas? Or replicas?

Our wholesale manager here just ordered those same wheels (replicas in a different finish) for his Dodge Ram 1500 and they had the same imperfections under the clearcoat, so he ended up returning them. But if they`re the factory forged Alcoas, those scratches should be in the clearcoat and should be removed with a metal polish. You`ll see much better results with a metal specific polish.

Flitz would be a great choice, use their buff ball unless you have forearms like Popeye.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-MA8gdpzrA5E/VdMhx_dYF4I/AAAAAAAAYJ4/APg_rH7Ifuw/s512-Ic42/IMG_20150813_115649.jpg

[ORANGERT]

Thanks Vega for the response! They are forged stock 22" wheels ( 2014 Ram R/T ). Would the metal polish be ok to use as I`m sure they are coated? They have looked this way since day one, but I waited till I had them off the truck to polish. I know the coating on my previous Ram wheels was almost like a plastic coating of some sort.

[4u2nvinmtl]

Just out of curiosity are they DuraBrite coated Alcoa`s?

[RaysWay]

Thanks Vega for the response! They are forged stock 22" wheels ( 2014 Ram R/T ). Would the metal polish be ok to use as I`m sure they are coated? They have looked this way since day one, but I waited till I had them off the truck to polish. I know the coating on my previous Ram wheels was almost like a plastic coating of some sort.

Nice wheels :) Yep, Flitz is safe on clearcoat and would be my first choice.

Are you going to coat the wheels after polishing?

[Ronkh]

Our wholesale manager here

wholesale mamager ?!?!?!?!?!?!?! <perk>

[ORANGERT]

Just out of curiosity are they DuraBrite coated Alcoa`s?


Nice wheels :) Yep, Flitz is safe on clearcoat and would be my first choice.

Are you going to coat the wheels after polishing?

I`m not sure who made them for Ram trucks, but they are the stock wheels that came on my 2014 Ram Sport R/T ( 22" polished aluminum ).
I am going to coat them after polishing with CQuartz DLux. I`m not very hopeful the scratches/swirls will come out though. I tried a spot with a 3" pad, UC, and my PC da. No difference. We`ll see how the Flitz and my drill does. No retailer has the Flitz around here, so I`ll be placing an order and keeping my fingers crossed!