[Richard]

Doug, did they come from alcoa chrome plated, or does newell do that with an aftermarket plating ?

[Dmatz]

Richard

I believe they come from Alcoa chrome plated.

[encantotom]

are they chrome or alcoa's super bright polished finish? when i was buying wheels for my front, they had two options. the regular and some other sealed bright shiney one. i got the regular cause that is what my other ones were.

tom

[Chester Stone]

That is a good question. If they are the special bright ones, I doubt that anything should be used except soap and water. Is there an identification on them that tells you which you have?

[Dmatz]

They are chrome I had a drive axel wheel peel and was replaced

[lbrachfe]

Only Doug's are "chrome"..... Newell only started using real all chrome wheels a couple of years ago. almost all the others stock from the factory were super bright once available to the market. pre acid wash on the sb wheel will make it new when polished, just wash off after 30 seconds and apply cleaner. Eagle among other company's make an acid loaded wheel cleaner that works great on our wheels.

Michael , do you have the number of the first coach with these chrome wheels ???

[Dmatz]

I know that 1480 had them. Not sure when it started.

[rheavn]

"minus the gouges of course"

Don't have to live with the scratches and gouges that just seem to appear on our aluminum wheels.  They can be removed fairly quickly and easily.  I had about a 12" area on the outer part of my tag wheel that had several deep scratches.  I wet sanded the area with 800 grit sandpaper until the scratches and gouges were gone.  Then I wet sanded with 1000, 1200, 1500 & 2000 grit sandpaper.  I then polished the area using a brown rouge.  I then polished the area with a white rouge.  Finished by polishing the entire wheel with Blue Magic--any aluminum polishing product of YOUR choice will work.  The entire job took about an hour and a half.  The wheel looks brand new. 

TIP:  The depth of your gouges or scratches will dictate what grit sandpaper you start with.  Start with as fine a grit as possible to completely remove the imperfection(s).  The follow up grits are just removing sanding scratches from the prior sandpaper.  If you don't remove your imperfections completely, you will just end up polishing your scratches.   

DISCLAIMER:  This will not work on chrome wheels.  If you try this on the aluminum Dura-Bright wheels that are covered with a protective coating, you will remove the coating where you sand and have to polish in the future.  Dura-Bright wheels began being used on Newells some time in the early to mid 2000s.  Maybe Michael knows exactly when they were offered.

Don't have to live with the scratches in the engine compartment stainless steel either, but stainless is a much harder material so takes a considerable longer amount of time to remove.  It too will look new when done.

[Richard]

You are right about the wet sanding, but I wasn't that industrious. To steal an expression from you, they are now 10 footers. They look fantastic from 10 feet away.

[lbrachfe]

I got mine down to 2', but not by Steves standards...lol...