AME_VIP

iTrader: (2)

I've owned all 3 and can I say I'm glad I finally have full chrome. Lowest maintenance.
Very good info and absolutely true. If you are a wheel nut, the tiny pits, scratches will drive you crazy.

AME Shallens - high polish lip with clear
RO_JA Formula 7 - polish no clear , lips will corrode if you don't clean them often. I still have these and will sand and refinish the lips
Weds Cerberus II - chrome, My current set. love them

GS300Rich

One thing I can suggest if you get polished lips with no clearcoat, Poorboys Wheel Sealant, or something of the equivalent. When you apply this to the wheels it leaves the wheels incredibly smooth so brake dust wont adhere to the lips. I usually wash my wheels 3 times a week and apply this bi-weekly and polish once a month. But cleaning the wheels is easy, takes maybe 10 minutes. The only thing it wont prevent is water spots, but I do my best to keep them away. Chrome is definately the easiest but I will stick to polish and work a bit harder

Lexis11

Johnny you may have already made up your mind but here is my advice.
I have had both full chrome and polished(lips). Polished forget about it if you drive it every day. Wayyyyyyyyyy to much maintanence. I drove my car every day and the lips would stain if you didnt keep up with them. For me they were a hassle more than anything. The chrome was way easier to maintain and keep up with everyday.
Your car being a trailer queen should have no problem keeping up with the polished though

TLW

Its a driveway queen.... thank you very much

RMMGS4

iTrader: (5)

Just got back from a business trip today so my first chance to respond.

I use wet/dry sandpaper but don't use water. It's more important to use water when sanding paint because the paint particles stick to the paper.

I do all of the sanding by hand. If the scratch is deep then I step to a rougher paper. I usually start with 220 or 320 and if the scratch is deep and it takes a while to sand it out then I go rougher to 100 and possibly 80 grit. You have to have a pretty bad curb rash to use it and it will be a pain to go each step from 220 to say 400 to 600, 1000, 1500 and finally 2000. You can try to shortcut these sanding steps, but when you polish you will see scratches from the rougher paper, if you didn't get them all out by using the next finer grit, you will need to do more progressive sanding. That just means you have to start back again with a rougher grit that matches the scratch depth. 320 grit isusually a good one to start for small scratches and pits.

As far as buffing, you can get away with mothers, simichrome or any other aluminum polish that is in a paste form and turns black. The liquid ones are usually a little to soft to polish out the 2000 grit sandpaper.

There are some pro aluminum hand polishes out there that come in heavy, medium and soft grits. This takes the place of 2000 sandpaper to some extent. Really good if the imperfections are just on the surface and good if you just need to remove water spots. Then there is aluminum protectant. This will keep the water spots from staining right away.

This all sounds like a lot of work and all I can say is yes it is. I also wash the brake dust off my wheels very often. The longer you keep dust on the rim, the worse it will be to keep the polished aluminum in pristine shape.

For me the soft look of polished aluminum is preferred over the glassy look of chrome. It really depends how much bling you personally prefer.

For a daily driver, I won't argue that chrome does it.

For show or semi -show cars, it's nice to be able to cherry out a set of wheels to like new condition, even after years of already being on the car.

Those who like putting multiple wax coats of Zaino to their paint are probably the same types that won't mind polishing their rims.