While the interior of my new Monte Carlo is near perfect condition, except for a few gouges in the plastic, the exterior has not fared so well in the 235,000 miles of her life.

One spot where this is most evident, are the wheels. These things are pretty rough.

(Sorry for the quality. Taken with my smartphone camera this morning on my way to work)


^Can you believe that's the best one??



^Those were the front two. Not too bad. But, definitely in need of some work.



^Only getting better...



^Pretty, huh? Let's take a closer look...



^^Eww.

So, as you can see...they are not pretty. Not something I like staring at every day, as it tends to draw your eyes away from the rest of the car. I want to salvage the look of these things, as I cannot afford new wheels at this time.

I was thinking of a black on black setup. Since I have the black leather interior, as well. But, wasn't sure if I'd enjoy the look of it. The wife doesn't like the idea of black wheels one bit. But, honestly, too bad.

She actually suggested doing them in red...really baby? Red?

Then it hit me..maybe incorporating both our ideas into one. So, here are my thoughts. I'm thinking about going black on the 'top' of the wheel. The most raised up surface. And, doing red in between the spokes, and in the dip in the spokes. Or, maybe just some red pin striping instead, since I don't want overkill on the red. Seem a little crazy?

Since I don't know how this will look. I have decided to go the plasti-dip route. I love the idea of removable spray paint. I'm going to go pick a couple bottles up hopefully at the end of this week. And then just paint the red overtop of that.

What do you guys think? I am completely open to suggestions.

Do you think I'll have to sand these down, or prep them at all? Other than giving them a good scrub down? Anybody else used the plasti-dip? I've heard nothing but good things. Which is awesome!

I'm getting excited!

 

I think before you do any painting you need to clean those like crazy. Never know, after the great cleaning you may be able to tolerate them until you can replace them.

I just recently used Mothers Mag and Aluminum polish on my rims. You should give it a try.

I also don't like black rims (you want the steelie look, get steelies lol)

 

Perhaps go all black and just do red on the indenting of the spoke (I think doing red inbetween the spokes might look a little goofy).

I am honestly not a fan of black wheels 90% of the time.

FYI - These wheels have a clear coat on them. Usually when you see that "nastiness", it's the clear coat seperating from the aluminum. If you don't get rid of the material that has lifted off the aluminum, it won't look right.

We have an Impala and one of the wheels had real bad peeling of the clear coat. I simply removed it, used a item that is like a Scotchbrite pad on a power drill, cleaned and sprayed a coat of clear. Yes, what I did looks different from the rest of the wheel, BUT, it looks a LOT better then what it was (I'm not out to re-finish those wheels, the car is a winter beater any ways).

Good luck and share pics!!

 

If u decide to go with black and red, I would do the entire wheels black then do the lip in red, that would look friggin sweet! My wheels somewhat looked that bad when I first got the car, they cleaned up pretty well when I decided to paint them
So maybe u should get a good cleaning out of them first and see how u like em then

 

you mean something like this??

 

exactly, thats ZIPPYS monte. one of my favorite most beast monte's out there

 

OOH!! I LIKE THAT! Thank you for all your suggestions, guys. I'm gonna go over to wal-mart at then end of the week and see what I can find to clean these puppies. Maybe hit autozone, too. Any suggestions on what I should use on them to get them cleanest? Any specific brands? Or, any certain tools?

Thanks again for the help, everybody!

 

 

Sorry, Chibi...Didn't mean to neglect your post. I just read the word polish, and figured I would need something a little more heavy duty. Like, something to actually work all the grime off, and scrub at the clear coat. I just assumed a polish would be more useful after I had scrubbed and scraped a bit.

 

If you are not sure what color you want to do you can always( yes i am gonna say it ) PLASTIDIP....i used it on my rims then waited 24 hrs and painted them black and they still look like bran new after 3 months. And if i ever dont like them any more a little peeling and back to stock they go.