Exterior Detailing > Wheels, Tires and Wheel-Wells
PVD wheels?
Kitzy:
So in my exhausting search for wheels I've come across the ATX AX191 Shackle. I'm very limited due to what I want. Anyhow, ATX seems to use Bright PVD as opposed to chrome. Anyone have any knowledge of this? https://detroitwheelandtire.com/pvd/ That link gives an idea of what it is but I'm looking at real world experience and not what manufacturers say it is supposed to be. If I go this route, any ideas on care and maintenance? Treat it as chrome? As powder coat?
Kitzy:
So no takers on this when I posted it. Anyone have any advice yet. The wheels I ended up going with are PVD. Basically the final coating is powder coating. I usually use soap and water and sometimes an APC. Any chemicals I should avoid? I'm thinking anything like Megs Wheel Brightener is a no-no.
Too Stroked:
Mike,
Well, that web site doesn't say crap about what PVD is, how it's done or how to take care of it. So I'll take a crack at it.
PVD stands for Physical Vapor Deposition. We used a variant of that process for years at Kodak to deposit the little square you centered your subject(s) with through the view finder on a camera. It involved arranging the parts in masks and racks that went into a vacuum chamber. These racks would rotate during the process. One then drew down a vacuum and vaporized metal which was then deposited on the substrates. (That's a gloriously over-simplified description BTW.) So it's not exactly like powder coating which is done without the need for vacuum. And Powder Coating requires an oven bake to melt / flow / fuse the powder into a hard coating.
So how should you take care of a wheel with this type of coating? (And I'm guessing here.) Just as you said, don't use anything aggressive on it. Never apply any chemical to a hot wheel. I'm also going to guess that the coating doesn't have a ton of corrosion resistance in and by itself - so stay away from salt. I'd also surmise that one would use a wax / sealer as opposed to a metal polish on them, but I could be wrong.
Hope that helps.
Kitzy:
Everything I've read has called it a powder coating. Here is another company. http://americanpvdcoatings.com/pvd-chrome/ my understand is that it holds up far superior to chrome in the elements. Time will tell on that. They have spent the better part of the month lathered in road salt since I put them on in February. They seem to clean up fairly nice just from the magic wand at the car wash. I haven't used any type of mitt on them yet to properly wash them. I probably wont use brushes. Maybe I'm just paranoid. I'm just concerned about the stubborn build up that is inevitable that sometimes requires a more aggressive approach to clean.
Kitzy:
OK a few things. I emailed the manufacturer. They were completely useless. I asked about the manufacturing process and recommended care and maintenance (already knew their answer on this one.). They said its similar to powder coating and that it is "the high class quality version of chrome." Haha OK. They said use nothing abrasive. Basically soap and water only. That said, these things clean up surprisingly well with very little effort. The self serve car wash does a great job with just the high pressure soap and rinse. Though it leaves them spotty. I finally got a chance to wash the truck, clay and optiseal it. The wheels cleaned up nothing short of amazing. They definitely need to be dried because they spot easily but with just soap (Optimum Car Wash in this case) and water and a wash mitt all of the brake dust and crap came right off. The down side is they seem to mar pretty easily. So I need to be careful but I also think a light polish will fix them up quick too.
Tapatalkin...
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