I recently drove through a construction zone and something got sprayed on my car and left a nice chunk of something black on one of my wheels. Not sure what it was but it wouldn't come off with anything I tried (clay, polish, etc). I took it to a professional detailer, and he couldn't get it off either, so he brought in a guy he uses to repair wheels.

The wheel repair guy made it look like it never happened, but I was told that the stock wheels are NOT clear coated. I've always thought they had a clear coat, and from what I can find they do.

Any idea why they were saying the wheels don't have a clear coat?

 

Do you really care?

 

Welcome. I believe the OEM wheels are clear coated. So how does this fact help or not help you?

 

Because wheel repair requires sanding through the damaged area, which in turn deletes the clear on that spot.

He either doesnt know any better (I doubt) or he wanted to charge you for full wheel restore on spot (which entails re-clear) and not spend his time or your now his money to reclear.

 

to fix it right you need to repair the damaged spot and reclear the whole wheel face.

 

Thanks for the useless response, but yes I do care. I would like to know how my wheels are finished, so I can properly take care of them.

Depending on the how they're finished determines on how they should be cleaned, polished, etc. I'm a little surprised that would even be a question. It makes me wonder how people are taking care of their vehicles if this doesn't seem to be a concern. Typically when you see wheels that have a damaged finish, it can be traced back to improper use of product or using incorrect selection of product.

As far as cost goes, I didn't have to pay anything. The owner of the detail shop wasn't there when the wheel guy showed up, and he was supposed to just give an estimate but he fixed the wheel. Therefore, the detailer didn't charge me for the repair, but he said it normally runs about $75, which isn't close to the cost for a full wheel repair. Therefore, it doesn't sound to me like he was trying to squeeze money out of anyone.

 

For anyone who cares, I believe I finally got a definitive answer, and it explains the confusion as it doesn't affect all Zs. The wheels have a faux clear coat but really shouldn't be treated like a clear coat in terms of cleaning. I went back to the detailer where I was first told they had no clear, and he said he was just passing on the info he received from the wheel repair guy, so he gave me his number and I talked to him (extremely knowledgeable guy).

He said it has to do with the process of how the wheels are painted, and it affects alot of the Infiniti wheels and some of the 350Zs but not all. Nissan has a color for their aluminum wheels called Hyper Silver, which is what I have. He said in order to get this color, they first put down a glossy black color on the wheel. Then they start applying the top coat which is about 85% clear. He said they'll continue applying this top coat mixture until they get it to the proper color of silver, so what you're left with is a little bit of a clear coated finish but not a true clear coat. He also said the mixture has a little powder in it, so it sounds like it may also have a slightly powder coated finish as well (this agrees with some posts I've seen floating around online). He said that if they apply a true clear coat on top when they're done, the color changes, so they just leave it.

He said that due to this, when using pretty much anything but car soap and water, you can get down to the black paint pretty easy. He said many of the new Lexus wheels use the same process, and people will take their car to a full service car wash where the wheels get sprayed down with acidic wheel cleaner, and by the time it comes out of the wash, the wheels have black lines all over them because the cleaner has eaten through the paint.

 

Thanks for sharing