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.