After looking at my wheels i discovered that they had been painted. At first I assumed it was due to rust that the previous owner was trying to cover up but when I looked at it more closely the actual rim did not appear to have any bubbles underneath the paint. There was quite a bit of overspray (obviously shot with a rattle can). It appears that they were trying to just shoot paint on the center section of the wheel and didn't tape off and it was very sloppy. I decided that I would attempt to at least clean up the over spray on the outer portion of the wheel and maybe keep the 'alloy' look that they had created on the center section. When I started to clean it with steel wool I accidently scraped the center section (near the edge)and saw a bit of gold coming through. I then realized they were covering up gold centers. When I first was looking at the wheels I was concidering replacing them with a different look so I figured as I progressed in the process if I completely messed them up I would start wheel shopping. The steel wool and a little bit of mineral spirits took the paint right off and exposed the reason that they had decided to cover it up. (Not necessarily the way I would have done it but ok) The anodized gold had apparently been exposed to something that had eaten it down to CHROME underneath (but in small splotches). I then went to a tougher grade of steel wool and with a lot of elbow grease have managed to clean two of my wheels to a shiny finish!! It is beautiful!
This leads me to a question. Can anyone identify my wheels? There are accorn shaped washers holding the bracket in place for the spinners and half of them need to be replaced. I haven't a clue where to look for them.
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