Polished or chrome???

dan03stang · Mar 9, 2004

I want to get new cobra R rims for my 2003 GT.Should i go with a polished or a chrome finish. The car is allways clean and never see's rain or snow.
__________________________________________________ _________
2003 GT
dark shadow grey
5-speed
mac cold air intake
bbk 70mm throtle body
trick flow upper intake
pro 5.0 power stick
mac off road h-pipe
flowmaster 40 series
steeda timing adjuster
steeda underdrive pullys
ford racing 3.73 gears

az2nvy · Mar 9, 2004

go with CHROME!

Red2000GT · Mar 9, 2004

Chrome is always prettier just a little more maintenance required.

DJsZincGT · Mar 9, 2004

Red2000GT said:
Chrome is always prettier just a little more maintenance required.

WHAT???? You can't be serious....POLISHED SUCK, especially the knock offs!!! I don't mean that as a flame in any way. A polished wheel is constantly having to be polished to keep their shine and if you've never spent the better part of a day polishing them you can't understand. With chrome, you wash them, dry them and walk away. The only down side to chrome is that if you scratch it you are screwed. With polished, as long as it isn't a really bad screw up it can be sanded and repolished.

Trust me, I just went through this...I currently have polished 95 R's on my car and I have to polish them all the time and that gets old quick. I just got my new Chrome 00 R's last week and am waiting until it warms up a little more before putting them on. I will never intentionally purchase another polished wheel unless I can get a quick turnover off of them.

gunsfan · Mar 10, 2004

Red2000GT said:
Chrome is always prettier just a little more maintenance required.

Chrome is practically maintenence free aside from regular washings. Since its clearcoated, keeping them clean is a breeze. I have polished aluminum wheels on my Toyota truck and it absolutely sucks, they stain easy, they pit easy and you can't just wipe them down. Its worth the extra $$ to buy chrome.

DJsZincGT · Mar 10, 2004

gunsfan said:
Chrome is practically maintenence free aside from regular washings. Since its clearcoated, keeping them clean is a breeze. I have polished aluminum wheels on my Toyota truck and it absolutely sucks, they stain easy, they pit easy and you can't just wipe them down. Its worth the extra $$ to buy chrome.

Chrome is not clearcoated. They are aluminum wheels dipped in a copper solution, then zinc (I think it's zinc) and then depending on the quality of the wheel it is dipped a number of times into a chrome tank. The authentic R's are triple chrome plated.

Red2000GT · Mar 10, 2004

Funny,I'd heard the opposite about chrome and polished. I went with polished on mine and have had them for a year and a half. I just spent this past weekend cleaning them up like new. As long as I used a brush and soap they were easy to clean. I know that chrome will scratch more noticably if you use a brush on them.

DJsZincGT · Mar 10, 2004

Red2000GT said:
Funny,I'd heard the opposite about chrome and polished. I went with polished on mine and have had them for a year and a half. I just spent this past weekend cleaning them up like new. As long as I used a brush and soap they were easy to clean. I know that chrome will scratch more noticably if you use a brush on them.

Well there are actually all different kinds of finishes. The basics are chrome, polished, and clearcoat. Any wheel that is painted today, for example the 1998 Cobra wheels (Satin), have a clearcoat finish to protect the paint. You can also get the aluminum look with clearcoat on them, but they are different than polished. A polished wheel is an aluminum wheel that has a smooth finish that is polished to a glossy shine. You can actually sand them if you get blemishes in them and repolish them and then apply an application of Zoops seal and it will look like new. I've been down this road on my 95 R's. There is a lot of salt and calcium used on the roads here in the winter and unfortunately I had to run these wheels during the first snow storm we had the first year I had the wheels and it destroyed them. They were actually brown even after I washed them and had pits all over them. I wet sanded them with 1000 grit, then 1500 and finally with 2000 and hand polished them with a high quality aluminum polish and they looked like they just came from the warehouse. However, that took a crapload of work, and I'd hate to go through it again. It's worth paying the extra money for chrome if you want the shiny look. Otherwise I'd do a clearcoat wheel.

LouisianaZJ · Mar 10, 2004

Question: The "machined" AFS 03 Cobra's they sell, are those "polished" or are they clearcoated somehow.

Erich98GT · Mar 12, 2004

For those that have the 2001 polished Cobra rims, how do you maintain them? I clean mine all the time with just soap and water but it looks dull now. I can't seem to find any products for clear-coated polished rims.. Does one just use regular car wax or polish and buff??

Xanax · Mar 16, 2004

Wheels

Get chrome for sure!

00GTblkvert · Mar 16, 2004

CHROME -- i have chrome cobra r's and on my black car = sweet. Easy to care for and looks fine.

LouisianaZJ · Mar 16, 2004

hey did a little research and found the answer to my question above.
the AFS machined wheels ARE clear coated

DJsZincGT · Mar 17, 2004

LouisianaZJ said:
hey did a little research and found the answer to my question above.
the AFS machined wheels ARE clear coated

Yes the "machined" wheels are clear coated, they have to be, or they would look awful. The polished aren't clearcoated, but they have a protectant (something like Zoops seal) on them to protect the polished wheel. A lot of the knock offs aren't sealed after they are polished and you find yourself polishing the wheels more than you should have to.

John89lx · Mar 17, 2004

I have AFS polished on mine and they're great. They are clear coated so you don't have to polish them. Chrome is too shiny IMO

Polished or chrome???

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