How do polished wheels stack up against real Chrome wheels?

I can get the same 4 Polished wheels for about $150 less than real chrome in the same exact wheels.

Here are some pics....

Polished

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT

Chrome

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...RK%3AMEWA%3AIT

 

Real chrome is plated. Polished is just aluminum that's shiney. Chrome>polished.

 

Chrome and polished aluminum each have their own unique look. The drawback of polished aluminum is that it's more labor intensive to keep it clean, but the benefit of it is that the finish is always renewable. Chrome requires less maintenance, but it also has a "life expectancy." Once a chrome wheel gets curb rash, or gets a chip or scratch in it, it's done. To have the finish on chrome restored to new, you'll have to have the wheel stripped and start over again with a fresh plating job.

Depending on what region of the country you live, and what your driving habits are, chrome can last a long time or look bad after just one year.

There's now a solution on the market for keeping polished aluminum looking clean and bright for up to 2 years, and it's called Zoopseal. Both Jeg's and Summit carry it:

http://www.zoops.com/zoopseal.asp

You're looking at around $125 for the kit. If you go that route you won't be saving the difference over the chrome wheels, but you'll have a wheel that will potentially last much longer.

 

Well I live in MA, so I wouldn't be keeping these wheels on all year... Just March-Oct.

What did you mean by judging by your driving habits??? If you are a fast driver, and like to smoke them up once and a while you would lower the life of the chrome???

I may just go with the Polished alumium.... because I would never have to get a wheel re-chromed and idk how good the chrome is on these wheels off of ebay. I enjoyed cleaning my car and cleaning my stock 16's anyway, so the maintence wouldn't bother me.

Can the average joe look at a wheel and tell if its chrome or polished alumium???

My best friend has chrome 20's on his seville and its a huge statement piece.
My stock 16" 5 spoke don't look so hot next 2 his. I figured these 18" even in polished alumium would be a HUGE improvement over my stock wheels... plus with some 275/35's to match compared to 245/50's.

 

It's basically just common sense stuff. Doing 90* burnouts into the lane you're turning into; donuts in the parking lot; gunning it at every stoplight; not taking detours around freshly paved roads...these are all things that just add up in little increments over time as far as multiplying the amount of pebbles and debris that can get spun up into your wheels and chip/scratch them. If you're a careful driver you'll probably be okay with chrome wheels, but that's really up to you to decide.

Tough call. I'm pretty hardcore into polishing myself so having been around it for so long, I can tell what's what right off the bat. I'll say that I've had people over the years look at stuff I've done and mistake it for chrome though. Just depends on the person really. If aluminum is kept up, it can look really impressive and is actually preferred by some, (including myself), over the look of chrome.

 

You can usually spot the difference between "polished" and chrome. Chrome looks like a mirror, polished has a more "satin" appearance (which I prefer).

One solution to the maintenance problems of polished wheels is the application of clearcoat. My AFS polished ZR1 replicas came with clearcoat, and the wheels look just like they did when I bought them more than 5 years ago. I also run Weld Pro-Stars which are polished but not clearcoated, but since the car never gets street driven, they look good with minimum maintenance. I'll polish them in April before a car show I like to attend each year, and then the shine lasts until the end of the season.