Are my chrome Wheels Stained? *Pics*

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vipermike2002

New member
I just bought a 99 Trans AM. It has 17" chrome WS6 wheels. 3 of them look great but one looks like its stained or something I cant make it look good. I tryed cleaning it with wheel cleaner water etc. I polished it with chrome polish, it still looks bad. Is this wheel ruined? Do I have to get a new one. Any ideas of what would make this wheel look like normal. Like I said it looks like it has stains on it and they done come off.



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I'm not an F-Body specialist...but are you sure those are chromed? If they are just the high-polished aluminum with a clearcoat, then they may be stained from what looks like an aggressive wheel cleaner. You could try a paint polish on them and see if that helps any. Did you polish by hand? You probably won't get too far with that. Perhaps a Mother's Powerball or Powerball Mini, or the Flitz polishing ball.
 
I was going to say the same thing...it looks like they were stained by a chemical of some sort, probably a wheel cleaner. I would also recommend that you try polishing them. Klasse AIO might even work.
 
that wheel looks like polished aluminum....I don't see any chrome pitting.....Got pictures of the other three? could have been a replacement wheel bought out of a junkyard or something
 
Since you just bought it, I think a likely scenario could be this:



The previous owner decides to sell the car. The wheels haven't been cleaned in a long time and he/she knows that the car will sell better with clean wheels. He/she goes to the store and buys the cheapest wheel cleaner available, and sprays it all over one wheel at first, possibly in direct sunlight. The cleaner (possibly with the help of the sun) leaves streaks/stains all over the wheel. The owner is disappointed with the results and...

1) Stops using the product after seeing the poor results from the first wheel.

2) Moves the car into the shade and continues to use the product on the other wheels without harming them.

3) Finds another product to use and cleans the other three with a safer product.
 
Not arguing, but I believe that many current GM models have a chrome wheel option which is just a Chrometech job on the regular painted wheels. Is it possible that wheel style was available in both the polished aluminum and chromed finishes?
 
I agree with Brad, those wheels should be chrome plated if they are factory, or even knock offs. You may have a hard time getting them back to new, but I'd try the Mother's Powerball Mini and some Mother's Chrome Polish and see what happens. If all else fails, you can get a new one fairly cheap off eBay or any number of F-body sites.
 
Thanks, I bought some mothers chrome polish, and I have a thing that does on a drill that can polish. I will try this later when im done waxing my car.
 
Thats what I use on my SS and it seems to work well but is there something stronger he could use for this? Oh and also another thing I think it could be is compound left on the wheels. Maybe the last dude used the wrong polish or something and it hazed. A clay bar might be able to take it off?
 
oh and they dont look chrome to me. but i do not know. i can tell you this the only thing i have ever wet sanded were a set of mags using 2k grit paper followed with 3m heavy d compound
 
they are chrome. i own an f-body, know a lot about them...those are chrome. buy chrome cleaner at pep boys. my rims did the same thing thanks to dallas acid rain. they look brand new now. careful not to overspray on the car, that cleaner is extremely harsh.
 
Well I tryed mothers chrome polish, and I used a drill with a cleaning ball attached to it. I polished the wheel for like half a hour. It looks better but still doesent look like the other wheels.



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Another wheel on my car... No stains



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