Ford Plastic/alloy wheels

[Gary Waugh]

Okay peeps, I have a 2008 ford expedition, it has alloy 20" wheels (stock ford wheels) but the wheel seems to be an alloy wheel with a chrome plated plastic trim that has been fitted to the front of the wheel to make it look pretty. Now all the chrome plating is lifting of the plastic and my wheels are looking a real mess. I don't want to spend $1000 buying 4 aftermarket wheels, so I was wondering if anyone has removed the chromed plastic covers to reveal the alloy wheel behind, and what it looks like?

Cheers Gary

 

[Motorcity muscle]

Both my 07 & 09 have steel wheels with plastic covers. If the plating is flaking may have to paint with some plastic chrome paint. Cleaned my covers with plastic cleaner for convertible top windows, there were black from brake dust, cleaned them up very nice.

 

[Gary Waugh]

Thanks for the info, I found a couple of videos where people removed the plastic facia, it’s quite a lot of work, but the allow wheel that is exposed does not look very pretty, so you then have to either polish them or get them painted/dipped. Probably going to leave them alone, they look a mess and every time I wash the car, a bit more of the chrome comes off making them worse. Probably will buy some aftermarket wheels later on.

 

[Gregg Eshelman]

If you can get all the paint off the plastic and are willing to put in some time and effort, you should be able to get them looking nice. After all the paint is off, wet sand the plastic with 600 grit then 800 grit then 1500 grit. Let that dry completely so there's no water hiding anywhere. Probably best to wait until summer so the wheels can bake all day in sunlight to dry.

Use Dupli-Color Prep-Spray to degrease the plastic then spray on Dupli-Color Perfect Match clear. You want to get a super glossy finish. This will have to dry completely so there's no solvent left to gas off. Now comes the shiny. Spaz-Stix Ultimate Mirror Chrome. This paint will make a reflective mirror if what it's sprayed on is smooth as glass. It was originally made for spraying on the inside of vacuum formed Lexan radio control car bodies but it reflects just as well from the paint side. Shoot it on one side of a sheet of glass and you have a double sided mirror. It will take multiple light coats to build up a shiny surface.

Spaz-Stix has a clear coat that's formulated to not attack their chrome, but some other brands of clear also work, just have to test on something and make sure the chrome is fully dry. A catalyzed urethane clearcoat should work better on wheels.

Spaz-Stix paints are available in 3.5oz spray cans or in bottles for airbrush application.

If the application is on the back side of clear things then Rustoleum Mirror Effect is nearly as reflective and costs less. Unlike Spaz-Stix this paint is only reflective *through* a transparent substrate. The exposed paint side just looks like boring "silver" paint. Unlike the Spaz-Stix paint, this Rustoleum paint attacks styrene, so one can't make a quick plastic mirror out of a CD jewel case lid.

A couple of other very good chrome look paints are ALSA Killer Chrome and Easy Chrome.

 

[Gary Waugh]

Many thanks for all the details, sounds like more work than I really want to do, but we will see. I am going to try and remove all the chrome on one wheel and then see how it goes.. if good, I will do the other three wheels.

 

[JExpedition07]

You could try and find Eddie Bauer or King Ranch rims. Both are true machined and polished aluminum

 

[Adieu]

You can usually score F150 wheels for a lot cheaper if needed, sometimes even free.

Lots of people taking those off in favor of something oversized or brutal looking. Check your craigslist or social networks.

 

[Sidman69]

I had the same issue and decided to purchase new wheels and tires - I upsized from 20" to 22".