Well I thought I could keep my chrome wheels from pitting by keeping them clean but that did not work. Any advice on how to keep them from getting worse? They are Helo Maxx 6's and I have had them for 10 months. The winter has not been that bad here and I have washed/cleaned them after ever bad weather we have gotten. I have the guy contacting the distribuitor where he got them from but have heard they will say that I didn't take care of them correctly. Any suggestions or advice on what to do now?

Thanks in advance!

 

Have any pictures?

 

My Helo Maxx 6's pitted in less than year on my truck, but I never had the opportunity to try and correct the issue because they were stolen off the truck. They were going to be replaced under warranty if I agreed to ship them back to the mainland on my own dime though.

 

Chrome wont last in salty areas sorry... you can washa nd scrub every day and that one peice of salt you dont get... and they are TOAST

 

I hate to be the one to be honest with you, but the finish on your wheels is pretty much toast. Aftermarket chrome plating just isn't up to factory standards where in comes to corrosion resistance. Worse yet, once the plating has been breached, there's not much you can do to restore it short of stripping and replating the wheels.

So, can you stop it from getting much worse? Sort of. Believe it or not, WD-40 does a credible job of slowing the process down. Sure, it will look like hell in no time, but it will actually protect the finish for a short period of time. And, you'll have to continually wash it off and replace it. That's why I always recommend putting the factory wheels back on for the winter. Sorry to have to deliver the sad news.

 

Has anyone heard of or seen clearcoated/powdercoated chrome wheels? I was talking to a guy who powdercoats wheels and he said if I get a new set to bring them in and they will powdercoat clear over them and they will be protected from the salt/grime corrosion?

 

Aftermarket chrome plated rims are subpar. I talk to a chrome plater all the time and he told me if I wanted chrome platting he would do it for me at a good price.(we never talk about a price) I stated to him that I would never get chrome rims again. I`ve had my HeloMaxx6 for 3 years now (black) with no problems. Right now they are coated in brake dust and road salt and the whole truck hasnt been washed in over a month.

 

I don't imagine that the machined aluminum wheels are impervious to salt, are they? Anyone have a number of years running these during Winter? I just pruchased two dif sets for two dif vehicles and will run at least one set all year.

Thanks,

Lance

 

Aluminum just needs to be polished regularly... It wont have permanent pitting like chrome does...

 

I'm going to agree - and disagree with that one. It is true that chrome plating - once compromised by corrosion - is pretty much done for. That's because the actual chrome plating has been eaten away by the corrosion. Once it's gone, there's very little left to protect the base metal.

Aluminum on the other hand IS the base metal in many wheels. Aluminum axodizes too, but the oxidation looks different than the rust you see on chrome plating. Corrosion and oxidation are the same thing though, so something is getting oxidized / destroyed. Can you polish it out? Generally speaking, yes. You won't want to know how hard this can get though. It's a royal pain.

So would the wheels shown in that picture survive an environment where road salt is used? I very much doubt it. The corrosion resistance of aftermarket wheels is very poor. (Do some searchng here and see what I mean.) Now, could you polish out the oxidation caused by road salt? Maybe. If you look at those wheels carefully, you'll see that they were painted black, then finish machined on the spokes to reveal the aluminum beneath the paint. There is a slim chance they were then clear coated. Does anybody think they could polish just those machined areas and have it look like anything? I don't think so.

If your town uses any road salt at all - and if you want those wheels to look half way decent - I wouldn't recommend running them in the winter.