Clearcoat on Aluminum Wheels

[JohnnyR]

Have a 2005 GMC 2500HD with the aluminum wheels with 101K miles. About 40K miles ago, the clearcoat begain peeling, first on 1 wheel, now all 4. Really looks bad. Does anyone know what causes this? I replaced the tires about 55,000 miles ago and I'm wondering whether the clear coat got nicked in the process, either by tire changer or the application of wheel weights. Never had this problem on my previous GMC trucks w/same wheels. Anybody know what it takes to fix it?

[More Power]

You could strip, polish, then re-coat your wheels.... Or, pick up a set of like-new "take-off" wheels someone replaced when installing new wheels. Nice OEM aluminum wheels can sometimes be pretty cheap on the secondary market. Check salvage yards (be careful of collision damage), eBay or Craigs List.

The coatings I've seen are usually pretty good, but damage due to wheel-weights, rough tire changing machines and stone impacts can all create an opportunity for corrosion to begin when the aluminum is exposed - especially when the vehicle is driven on roads treated with salt or other de-icers.

Jim

[Quack_Addict]

The clear coat on the wheels of my late 2006 has been corroding for about 2 years now. I am still on the original set of tires; aside from rotating the tires/wheels, they have never had any work done to them (not even rebalancing). My chrome center caps are starting to get a fair amount of green corrosion on them. I probably could have had something done under the 3-year/36k mile warranty but after fighting 2 different dealers on pretty much everything warranty related on my truck, being told "unable to duplicate customer concern" a bunch of times but truck still exhibiting my complaint pulling out of the dealer lot, and it taking them 3 or 4 tries to fix what they did cover, I was pretty burned out on the dealership experience and tired of fighting by the time my bumper/bumper warranty was up.

It's all about cost savings. GM and other OEM's all have a set of validation criteria that their parts must meet. Parts usually just barely pass some validation criteria because, for instance, if a wheel took 20 years and 300k miles before it started to corrode, the part is seriously over-engineered and therefore costs more to produce... so the OEM could have got it cheaper up front and pocketed more cash off the original vehicle sale.

Sadly, most aftermarket wheels retain their finish better than OEM wheels...

[More Power]

I visited Michigan in June 2006, and was surprised to see otherwise nice 90's GM trucks with rusted out cab corners, lower doors, and... They don't call it the "rust belt" for nothing.

I can't remember seeing such rust on the 90's GM trucks here in Montana, though they do use a magnesium chloride solution on local/suburban roads here and there during the winter.

So, I'm guessing the road de-icers and salt used on the roads in the upper mid-west are pretty nasty. Frequent winter washing, waxing and undercoating would help. Most of the rusted brake and fuel line problems we hear about are on trucks from the upper mid-west.

I heard from a guy a few years ago who worked as a fleet mechanic for some large upper mid-west operation that owned lots of pickup trucks. The fleet maintenance shop sprayed the undersides of all the trucks with a rust preventative solution every fall (probably an oil/atf mix) to combat the rust. Seems extreme to me...

My 2001 GMC has never been hand waxed in the 9-1/2 years I've owned it. It has received a few wash/wax sessions in the commercial drive-through car washes, but never any hand waxing. The paint still looks like new, even though the truck sits (has sat) outside most of the time. I'd have to say that the paint used by GM is good stuff. No other car/truck I've owned looked this good after half the time.

Jim

[ToddMeister]

Yeah here in Michigan the salt spreading is way overdone it seems. There were times this past winter the local Road Commission spread salt every day of the week, even after a very light frozen precip event. Our paved roads would become very white from the salt residue!

Only the 90's trucks that have been kept off the roads during the winters or have been fixed/repainted (like my 95) still look decent.

I wax my 05 GMC at least once a year, in fact just did it last weekend. Paint still looks like new.

The paint takes a beating in the winter from all the salt for sure.

I have two sets of rims for the 05, the stock Aluminum rims are taken off during the winter, and I run steel chrome plated wheels in the winter. The steel rims seem to tolerate the salt much better.

[drcook]

I had my truck undercoated and it goes back every year to get a touchup on the undercoat. Prior to that, I go over the entire underside and kill any rust with a product called Ospho (phosphoric acid) and paint with yellow rustoleum so they can see where it needs sprayed heavier with the undercoat.

There is a company in Shelby Ohio that will strip the wheels chemically for 36.00 per wheel, then you would have to hand polish and have them re-cleared. New poly clear will be thicker and last longer. I have a set that will go there after the 1st of the year and get redone.

My advice is to get 2 sets, either 1 steel and 1 aluminum, or both aluminum and run the best set in the summer and have the worst set fixed in the summer, but then you need 2 sets of tires.

I have 3 sets, 2 for the 2500HD and 1 that will go on the 91 being restored in the garage. 2 of the sets will go to Shelby Ohio to be stripped and restored.

dc