CHEVROLET/GMC ALLOY WHEELS

[Terry Wiegand]

Hello Chevrolet Enthusiasts,

I have what you guys might think is a strange request. I have been a GM person all of my life. I have always had Buick cars and Chevrolet trucks. I have a 1916, 1920, and 1922 Buick

car and a 1995 Chevrolet Silverado pickup. I ordered this truck new and it has just a little over 50,000 miles on the odometer. The factory plastic is still on the extended cab rear seat.

This truck has been used CAREFULLY since day one. It looks brand new. Here is my problem. The clear coating on the alloy wheels is starting to turn crappy looking. I have a local guy

who can bead blast the wheels and powder coat them the gray color that is in the cavity on the wheels now. I could live with that, but, the center solid disc has a plastic back that can

not be coated and baked because of the plastic back. I could go to a modern polished aluminum Chevrolet wheel, but, Holy Crap!, my dealer is telling me an outrageous figure for the

four new wheels. Does anybody out there have any ideas or suggestions on how to deal with the wheels that I have now. I think that these wheels are really pretty cool and I would like

to keep them on the truck if at all possible. I'm all ears as they say.

Terry Wiegand

South Central Kansas

terrywiegand@prodigy.net

Phone/Fax - (620) 665-7672

[NTX5467]

There is a GM factory procedure to refinish those earlier aluminum factory wheels. It was somewhat common for the factory clear-coat finish to degrade from particular car wash whitewall cleaner solutions. Seems like there were two variations of the center caps . . . one that was "plastic chromed" and the other was a thin layer of shiney metal which was overlayed onto a plastic casting. There are places which can rechrome the plastic, but the other "stainless" overlay version could only be replaced.

What the newer wheels are is "chromed aluminum", which is one reason they are so high-priced, but then your existing wheels were not "inexpensive" from GM Parts back then, either.

You might check the online vendors of "reman" alloy wheels to see if they have the same wheels you have . . . reconditioned. There are several of these companies. You might check with the body shops in your area to see who they use and who's got the best products. For either the earlier wheels or some newer-model ones.

Just some thoughts,

NTX5467