[jarretts70]

The title says it all - were snowflakes clear coated when new? I've been restoring a set of 15 x 8's and I'm not sure if they should be cleared or left natural....

[Larry Navarro]

cleared.
I've used POR-15 "Glisten". Hard as a rock and will last years with yellowing.

https://www.por15.com/Glisten-PC-Hig...oat_ep_75.html

[Skip Fix]

Larry did you spray it or brush it?

[78w72]

factory snowflakes were cleared when new with a very thin clear. it would wear or flake off after many years on the rims ive seen. my snowflakes back in the early 90's wore the clear off to where if you polished by hand the rag would get the black residue from the bare aluminum, would shine up real nice though, you just had to keep up on them or they would oxidize & dull.

rims i have now were sent off for restoration & cut into fresh metal on a lathe, they usually clear coat them with a powder coat clear... but it comes out very orange peeled & can get lint or debris in it & not look very good. not too mention that if you get a chip in it they cant really be touched up right & possibility for yellowing after many years of use & brake dust etc. i chose to not have them cleared to avoid those issues & they look excellent. i just do a light waxing on them once a year & they have stayed looking like new for over 9 years now.

so i say no clear if its not a daily driver in harsh conditions. just a little maintnance will keep them looking great & no clear issues.

[pippintook]

I have read where the Factory did not clearcoat the snowflake wheels.

78w72 - it sounds like you are saying the Factory clearcoated the entire wheel including the center sections and the aluminum spokes and lip.

As we know, they were quite a few different snowflake wheels used by the Factory and different configurations (ie. different colors for painting center section and in some years no painting of center sections?).

I have a 78 TA with WS6 wheels. When I redid my 78 WS6 snowflake wheels (about 8-10 years ago ?), I painted the centers Argent Silver and sprayed a clearcoat over the Argent Silver. Cheap rattle can stuff I lightly sanded and polished the spokes. This caused the spokes to lose some of the machining marks that were in the spokes. The rest of the wheel (lip, area from lip to spokes) was left natural aluminum. The spokes, lip and area from lip to spokes polishes up real nice. I used Mothers alum mag polish and always looks great.

But, I drive my car quite a bit and it sees rain once in a while. My cheap rattle can clear on the Argent Silver center sections has started to yellow a bit.
- though, again this is after 8-10 years. Whenever, I polish the spokes and the rest of the rim - again, the wheel looks great. But, for me - often I don't have the time to polish and cleaning the wheels can be a bit tedious. Kind of dread cleaning the wheels - it is a pain.

I have tried some good wheel specific waxes (ie. Chemical Guys wheel guard wax) This helps - the alum spokes and wheel stay shiny a bit longer and the wheels seem to repel dirt a bit better. I can just do quick spray with hose and gets rid of much of the dirt - then a light wipe and wheels look decent.

I am going to repaint my centers this winter. I thought maybe I would try my Harbor Freight soda blaster and clean the center sections of paint/clear. I was thinking maybe give center sections a light coating of a SPI grey epoxy primer , some argent silver and then some SPI Universal Clear Centers should hold up decent and be easy to clean.

I would like to polish the spokes and the lip and area between the lip and spokes and get them nice and shiny. Then, I would love to put something on the polished aluminum to reduce my maintenance and make cleaning easier. I was thinking of clearcoating the polished aluminum or powdercoating.

Possibly, if clearcoating, use something like SPI Universal Clear with spi adhesion promoter. This thread discusses clearing polished aluminum - though this is for a grille and not wheels
http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.ph...aluminum.4080/

Some recommend Bulldog Adhesion Promoter and then clear over that others advise using Sharkhide-though might not be best if wheel is highly polished. It seems with powdercoating or clearing polished aluminum wheels there can be issues - dealing with chips, cost etc. I might just keep doing what I have been doing...and polish the spokes and rim lip (space between lip and spokes)
every once in a while. This always works and looks good.

[Larry Navarro]

Originally Posted by Skip Fix

Larry did you spray it or brush it?

Spray.
I use POR "glisten" on aluminum dirt bike parts, fork legs, swingarm, etc. I do a lot of vintage motocross racing. That's a high test of durability of the clearcoat., more than snowflake wheels will ever encounter.

[78w72]

Originally Posted by pippintook

I have read where the Factory did not clearcoat the snowflake wheels.

78w72 - it sounds like you are saying the Factory clearcoated the entire wheel including the center sections and the aluminum spokes and lip.

As we know, they were quite a few different snowflake wheels used by the Factory and different configurations (ie. different colors for painting center section and in some years no painting of center sections?).

from what ive seen on the 15x8 WS6 snowflakes over the years they looked to be cleared. & they would not have stayed shiny as long as they did if they were bare aluminum. it was a very thin possibly lacquer based clear, nothing like the thick stuff on more modern vehicles. when it started to wear off it would just look like a residue on the aluminum, no edge you could catch or peel up or anything like that. ive had quite a few sets of the 15x7 wheels too but never noticed anything obvious on them.

there were a few different designes of the snowflake so it's hard to say if they all were cleared or maybe they stopped using it in later years? i am also not the original owner of any of the wheels ive seen or the cars that i had so maybe someone sprayed some clear on them?

[Aus78Formula]

That's why the factory clear coated them after machining, to maintain the finish as long as possible and for the painted sections

[jarretts70]

These wheels were in rough shape, they were heavily corroded and at some point the center sections had been badly repainted with paint that was a bear to get off. I wound up blasting the wheels, then repainted everything using Seymour's stainless steel paint - I just like the look of the "natural" centers better than the grey painted centers.Snowflakes aren't original to my car anyways, so I'm not worried about originality....After paint I had them machined by a wheel place, so they have a nice original machined look that I want to keep. I've got some SPI clear left over from the paint, so I'll shoot some clear on a wheel & see how it goes.

[78w72]

Originally Posted by jarretts70

These wheels were in rough shape, they were heavily corroded and at some point the center sections had been badly repainted with paint that was a bear to get off. I wound up blasting the wheels, then repainted everything using Seymour's stainless steel paint - I just like the look of the "natural" centers better than the grey painted centers.Snowflakes aren't original to my car anyways, so I'm not worried about originality....After paint I had them machined by a wheel place, so they have a nice original machined look that I want to keep. I've got some SPI clear left over from the paint, so I'll shoot some clear on a wheel & see how it goes.

im not familiar with SPI clear, but be aware that a standard clear for body paint most likely wont stand up to the heat & brake dust & hars environment wheels are exposed to. they make a special high heat wheel clear thats much more resistant to heat & brake dust etc...

[Bill Boyle]

When aluminum wheels are not clear coated, any kind of polish will turn the foam pad or towel black. When aluminum wheels are clear coated, the same polish will do very little other than show some dirt. Many times an aluminum wheel with clear coat may be scuffed and you will see an abrasion. That abrasion is in the clear typically unless the abrasion is really a ding into the metal.

Original owner of my snowflakes (as well as the 79 TA) they were coated with clear when new. As time passed, over the years, the clear began to break down and peel off. When I refurbished them 21 years ago, I left them natural. They get polish and wax to keep them sharp.

[pippintook]

It is interesting that the Factory clearcoated snowflake wheels. Or at least some snowflake wheels got Factory clearcoated (15*8's - but, not 15*7's) ? Any ideas what the Factory used? Did the Factory use a special high heat wheel clear? SPI is Southern Polyurethane. Southern Polyurethane's Universal Clear is considered by many to be a pretty good clear and for a good price (see http://www.spiuserforum.com/index.php). Is there current high heat wheel clear that guys use on highly polished aluminum ?

I know many guys polish their snowflakes (spokes, lip, area between lip and spokes) to an almost chrome like shine. From what I have read making clearcoat adhere to highly polished aluminum can be challenging. I thought the Factory machined the snowflake spokes - so I would think Factory clearcoat would adhere better as it would have something to "bite" into? It does not appear the Factory highly polished the lip, area between lip and spokes - is that correct ? Again, this might make the clearcoat adhere better ?

[78w72]

pretty sure they cleared all aluminum rims... otherwise they would all be dull oxidized looking. i only mentioned the 15x7's since i never owned a pair on my own cars or for long enough to inspect them closer, but i imagine they were cleared as well to prevent corrosion.

last i recall they used a lacquer based clear, or maybe by the mid 70's it wasnt lacquer, but it was definitely very thin & hard to tell it was there untill it chipped or wore off.

the snowflakes werent really polished at the factory, just a fresh machined metal which is very bright & shiny but not like chrome or the super polished look some do on these wheels.

[Aus78Formula]

X2
All were clear coated so we won't continue spreading misinformation and weren't polished at all, just machined. The last thing they'd had wanted to do was to remove all the polishing oils abd wax to get a clear coat to adhere.

[burd]

My 78's were not cleared, they oxidized bad back in the day. I redid my rims in 1984, they were oxidized bad. No clear at all. They are Westerns.
I have a nOS Kelsey flake, it has clean on, but it went to SEMA and SAE shows, they may have sprayed the show rims.

[Aus78Formula]

Actually the 78 rims always looked terrible, the gold discoloured and went dark, so maybe they learnt quickly.

[Warren Seale]

I bought my 79 new. I had it within days after it was unloaded from the truck. In one week the clear coating started showing signs of failure on one wheel. The dealer replaced the wheel. These are 8 inch gold Western wheels. After about a year or two they all started having the clear wear off. When I had the wheels restored with new gold about 5 years ago I noticed the original gold color was darker than it should be . It's funny that the gold got darker, you would think that it would fade lighter.

Warren

['ol Pinion head]

The prehistoric clearcoat didn't hold up well. Neither did GM's crappy water based enamel being applied on Van Nuys builds, been there. Have had numerous sets if '78 15x8 gold snowflakes, going back 30 years, & agree they did not look like they were clearcoated. The '79 AirFlows (turbo wheels) seemed to have heavier clearcoat applied. Several in the hobby in the early 00's, were having the snowflakes properly remachined & restored, that process included a final finish of modern clear coat. If your original snowflakes are not pitted from brake dust, they may be a good candidate for the remachine restoration process.

[Rocky Rotella]

I found some Pontiac engineering information that suggests that the machined portions of the cast-aluminum Snowflake wheels (both 7" and 8") produced through the 1978 model year were left natural.

It seems that Pontiac began clear-coating all of its cast-aluminum wheels during the 1979 model year. It's quite possible that this was timed when production on the Turbo wheels for the Y89 cars began.

Also, the colored areas were power coat.

[Skip Fix]

"Neither did GM's crappy water based enamel being applied on Van Nuys builds, been there."

Yes my 78 started fading between the T tops and on one pillar and quarter panel at 2 years of age! Why in '88 I took it apart and painted it all in Glasurit black polyurethane(think Mercedes/Porches) and topped with clear.