I will be purchasing some new wheels and I am not sure what to get? Crome or polished aluminum ? I have very little experience with new off the shelf wheels. I usually source OEM or nostalgic wheels. So no new bling bling for me so far.

My current wheels are the OEM forged alcoas. They appear to be polished aluminum with a clear coat. They do have a few scratchs due to off roading. Which I do quite a bit of.

Just wondering if any of you had any ides of which way to go on the new wheels?

Since you do some off roading, I'd go for the polished no clear coat. Reason being if you scratch or nick the rim, you can sand progressively to 1000 grit paper, then re-buff. You chip the chrome.. to bad, so sad. Plus if the chrome peels, I've heard horror stories about getting any warrenty.

Here's a nickel, you owe me .03 change for my .02 worth:D

Pete

Polished for me for that exact reason. You can always repolish but not rechrome.

You guys might have a point, but considering the amount of mag cloride and salt thats put on the roads, especially in colorado, chrome is a better bet. I got some mag chloride on a set of American Raceing Nitros on my last truck while driving down I-70 during the winter, didnt think too much about it, washed it about three days later and there were these spots where the mag had eaten on the aluminum that wouldnt come off. So just beware, that stuff they put on the roads to melt ice will destroy aluminim wheels, unless your really careful and wash it off as soon as it gets on em.

One trip in the salt will basically detroy the polished finish. Very hard to regain finish. Polished with clearcoat is the way to go, but alot of manufacturers do not offer.

I just bought some Weld EV crome wheeles @ 650 a rim. The local dealer talked me into the crome. He said Weld has a no bullsh*t five year crome warrenty. I have seen cheaper crome plated wheeles blister. My main reason for the crome was the superior shine.

Bronco,

Here's what that Censored mag chloride that CDOT puts down does to polished aluminum.-:t

Josh

If you get polished aluminum you better live in a salt free climate ........I had beautiful M&T Classics..........first winter I got a little salt on them........had to polish them with an Eastwood metal buff kit to get them back..........sold them after and went with Chromed H2's........

Chrome is way easier than polished aluminum.........

T;) NY

I just bought some Weld EV crome wheeles @ 650 a rim. The local dealer talked me into the crome. He said Weld has a no bullsh*t five year crome warrenty. I have seen cheaper crome plated wheeles blister. My main reason for the crome was the superior shine.
Dude you paid $650/wheel for EVO's? What size did you go with? I give $360 ea for my EVO Velocity 8's. They are 16x8's though. Retail on them is $450 ish.

If you live in CO and you go chrome you need to spend the extra $$$ and go with the Welds. No one else has the 5 yr warranty I can think of. A few had 1 yr on chrome but most had no warranty. Polished wheels are a pain to keep polished if you want the wheels to look like new but if you off road and you scratch alum you can polishing out, chrome you can't!

I got chromed on mine so I dont have to monkey with polishing them all the time..

Have you looked at the price of the two different types. Quite a difference between the two. If you go off road alot you stand a chance of ruining the finish on the chrome or you could ruin the finish on the polished wheels if in the salt areas. You may also ruin either when off road if you hit a rock and bend a rim.
It sounds like you really want the chrome though and are trying to convince your self of getting them.
If you have the money I would go with the chromed ones on the set of tires you like and get a set of chrome steel rims with the tires you like for off road. This way you have two sets of tires for different types of driving and you also have that much more milage on the tires due to swapping back and forth.
Sounds like a pain but some times you have to make sacrifices.

Crome is the way to go, If you don't have the money wait and save. I had polished aluminum centerline hell cats on my brub and they where a pain in the ass to keep clean. Had crome centerline comets on my lifted 8.1 and they where much easyer to clean. Just put cromed H2's on my 05 and they look sweet.

Dude you paid $650/wheel for EVO's? What size did you go with? I give $360 ea for my EVO Velocity 8's. They are 16x8's though. Retail on them is $450 ish.

If you live in CO and you go chrome you need to spend the extra $$$ and go with the Welds. No one else has the 5 yr warranty I can think of. A few had 1 yr on chrome but most had no warranty. Polished wheels are a pain to keep polished if you want the wheels to look like new but if you off road and you scratch alum you can polishing out, chrome you can't!


I bought the Weld EVO Wheels Velociti 8 XT Chrome 18x10 . Big difference in price. That figure "650" included the dismount , mount, balence, and a reputable company that will be there for a long time to warrenty them.

AK - I shopped today...not ready to purchase yet but the salesmen had a great point I think others have touch on. My main thing was low maintenence. Salesman allowed wash and wipe on the Chrome. And wash and wipe and polish and wipe and polish and wipe with the polished.....Chrome:D ? or polished:confused: ? lol

Iv'e had both also and will never deal with polished again for the same reasons.

I bought crome H2's on ebay. They were professionally cromed by the best crome house in california. They have the high 5.5" backspace which keep them inside the fenders. I paid $ 700.00 for all 4 and had them the very next day. I feel that they are the best looking crome rim you can buy for a chevy. Everybody and the brother has 5 or 8 spoke wheels, in my town nobody else has the H2's. EVO velocity 8 in chrome would be my second choice or the chyenne. The EVO's have the 5.15" backspace which keeps them from sticking out. The EVO XT's have the 4.5". You only need the 4.5" backspace if you are going to have a spidle lift kit.

I bought the Weld EVO Wheels Velociti 8 XT Chrome 18x10 . Big difference in price. That figure "650" included the dismount , mount, balence, and a reputable company that will be there for a long time to warrenty them.
I figured they had to be 18's or bigger for that price. Can't beat the quality and warranty on the wheels though. Worth the extra $$$.

Talking about Chrome and salt...

I've been looking at Chrome rims, and pretty much all the places I've talked to warned me about salt. Basiclly if I ( the consumer ) had an issuse with the chrome plating, either peeling, flaking, dis-coloring, etc..., and they sent them back to the factory for warrenty, and if any salt residue is found, no matter how slight, all warrenties are void.
So you might want to look into that aspect before buying.
Pete

If you do serious off-roading, the steel wheels will bend when hit, the aluminum ones will crack. You can always beat the steel ones back in shape with a hammer, not so much with an aluminum rim. I doubt you do serious enough off-roading in a 3/4 ton pickup to make this a real consideration, however....

Nope, no serious off roading in the big truck. I do drive it slowly and carefully on miles and miles of BLM,Natioanal forest and other non pavement roads. Some spots do get a little harry, but I take it easy. My wheels and tires have a few war wounds but only superficial.

From listening to all of these post, I might be limited to what I already have. That is polished aluminum with a clear coat. It has held up pretty well so far. I just wish I new how to repair the nicks and scratchs that I do have.

Any idea on what is used as a clear coat? I new the material I could buff out the scratches and reaply some clear.

Don't go AL.

I disagree, I went chromed aluminum after destroying two sets of polished ones. The salt has not been a factor at all, the dealer told me it would not and proved it to me when he showed the set on his ride with over sixty-k on them in the sames salt infested area that I live in. Besides that throw some water on them and they gleam like gems, I busted my knuckles on the polished ones and one winter dulled them beyond repair the pitting insued imediately. My Helo Maxx 8's have held up through two salty winters and shine like new.

unless you have a bunch of elbow grease available, don't buy polished aluminum.

Get Chromed. Have Billets man what a pain.