OhSixBalt

3 of my 4 rims are fine; the one in the picture below is not fine. It looks like these rims have been chromed or something - either way, it's a bubbly chrome and I don't like it. How to handle it?

1. Paint black (flat or gloss - which works best?)
2. Can it be steel wool rubbed and will it come out ok (I doubt it by the looks, but I don't know)

I like the flat black or gloss black but I don't want to destroy the value - it seems these things are pricey.

Also, are the 18" rims kind of uncomfortable while driving? I remember 16" on a sports car I had were really vulnerable to pot holes and they didn't feel as cushy soft as the 15". The bigger rims however were like driving on rails when it came to cornering - nice and stiff.

Bubbling from some kind of treatment

Henry3959

They are polished then plastic coated. What do your other 3 look like?

OhSixBalt

Pretty good - they were painted yellow so I took off the yellow with aircraft paint stripper and methyl ethyl ketone (i.e., for both, wear a $50 mask!), and so far they're cleaning up nice but I still have to do one last round of clean and rinse - see below.




The dark spot is just grime it'll come off.

The MEK is a cheaper alternative - the aircraft paint stripper is too expensive for what it does.

ProfDNS

Depending on how bad the road rash is, you may need to use filler. I hand sanded most of divots with 80 grit working my way back to 500 grit, and used a dremmel with a 120 grit flap wheel to get rid of the really stubborn areas. Took me 2 days total (offsetting weather) to clean them up and paint them.

I would recommend filler primer, 2 light coats and a moderate 3rd coat. I painted mine black gloss with Rustoleum paint with UV protection and 2 light/moderate coats of clear also with UV protection.

The past winter did some damage to them (as expected) but will be redoing them again, just a lot less work this time around.