what the...! RUST on my chrome wheels?

this just sucks...i havnt even had my maverick very long at all (since this here summer) and recently after all the cold rainy moist air/weather came around...i noticed that my chrome wheels are getting rusted around the inside of the rims where apparently water/moisture collects from the car sitting outside of the garage. So originally I cleaned off the rust with a plasticky kind of cleaning pad like you use on your dirty dishes....that worked good, then i cleaned the entire chrome wheel and cleaned the baby moon caps really good too. Everything was cool, then after we had a bunch more rain and cold and the car was still sitting outside...i went to go drive her and the wheels had all the rust back on them again. NOW KEEP IN MIND THE WHEELS WERE LIKE ALMOST NEW WHEN I GOT THE CAR THIS SUMMER. Im not sure what happened here, or perhaps this is normal...ive never and i mean NEVER had chrome wheels rust up like this from just the car sitting outside in the rain over a few weeks??? Im wondering if YALL can tell me whats up with THAT? Is there anything chemically I can apply to the chrome wheels to keep them from getting surface rust when the car sits outside of the garage in the rainy weather? A friend of mine told me....."o that's normal to happen in the coldrainy weather, and usually people take their nice chrome wheels off in the winter time and put the old stock wheels on for the season". And he also told me to "spray some W-D40 on the wheels"....that is supposed to keep them from rusting. Im PRETTY FREAKED OUT ABOUT THIS RUST. Any suggestions please?

p.s
this is almost as bad as last month I had a "red cardinal bird"...ya a real flying bird...and he kept coming down out of the tree in my yard, and he would run up to my wheels on the maverick (the chrome wheels wbaby moon caps) and he would "FLOG" my wheels as if he thought he was "seeing" another BIRD in the reflexion. I literally spend 3 days chasing the Bird away from my wheels!!!! TRUE STORY FOLKS...my wife even seen the bird acting like a rooster in a henhouse and we both laughed our butts off. Finally i wound up putting old t-shirts over my wheels so the BIRD would NOT see his own reflection in the chrome, the bird finally left my car alone...ha, ha, ha.

 

turtle wax makes a chrome polisher plus rust remover it works greak its in a white bottle with a red cap its about $4 so its good for the buy all you got to do is shake well dab it on rusted area then rubb/scrub it in let it sit. then wipe off

 

Offshore chrome, probably. They put it on pretty thin these days. Just keep them coated with a good chrome polish, that should help.

 

I have used polish and then covered the easier-to-get-to areas of my wheels with a non-abrasive car wax, and had decent results with that.

 

No slight against you whatsoever, but cheap chrome wheels are "cheap" for a reason....very prone to surface rust. Here is what I would recommend:

1. Do NOT run these wheels in the winter time. Remove them, clean them, wax them, and then put them inside untill Spring.

2. If you do decide to run them in the winter time (or summer time for that matter), I would recommend cleaning them and waxing them EVERY week.

3. If you do have to run them in the winter, you can coat them with a layer of grease, then remove the grease in the Spring.

I am afraid with these wheels you will always be chasing the rust bug away. The rust bug is worse than the cardinals!!

 

http://www.nevrdull.com/

 

If you have clear coat on your wheels, use car wax. aluminum polish takes the clear coat off

 

Spray em with Pledge furniture polish and leave it on there...dont wipe it.It will make the chrome look dull but,it should protect them for a short time if left outside.

 

I am in Illiniois also, chrome wheels of any sorts have never weathered the winters. I take chrome wheels off the road by October and dont put them back on till April of the following year. I had those type wheels you have when I was a kid, even the rain would cause them to rust.

 

.....figures they are cheap wheels, but i like them and they look cool on the car. I am gonna replace them this summer anyways. I have the stock wheels maybe I'll put them on maybe not...SO basically it seems that the general opinion is just to keep them clean and maybe put a polish or protectant on them regularly.......cool thanks.

 

I live in Illinois also. I agree w\ Craig and Dan. Chrome steel wheels have a penchant for rusting in damp climate, especially the Generic brands - If I had them I wud remove and store them in a dry a place as possible. If ur going to replace them anyway - I guess they can remain a few more months.

 

WD-40 dont wipe it off, looks hazy but will keep them from rusting from the winter/animal urine etc

 

Seems nearly everything automotive doesn't weather well in hot/humid/ cold/wet areas of the country.

I wash, buff and wax my sitting project cars with decent paint every spring and I keep the grass trimmed down and mowed around them.....in the hot, humid months of summer (real hot and humid lately), the insides of the cars sweat and get mildewey, even with vinyl cleaner/treatment, the outsides turn green (from the grass?) or black with some kind of fungus that works itself into the paint....and, of course, winter's freezing temps and snow/ice does it's very own kind of damage and wear (I had two windshields crack from ice).

Nothing like when I lived in Cali and only had to buff and wax the car once a year, and the worst "weather" did was some water spots or dust from the Santa Ana winds. (although I hear they're having some wetness and mud issues there these days)

I completely avoid chrome wheels anymore.....it's been years since I had a set with a quality chrome finish that lasts more than a year or two, even with constant care......If I want the shine, I polish aluminum.

 

My wheels gave me a time with that also. What worked for me was i used a SOS pad and it kept the rust right off, you just have to make sure that it isnt one of the rougher pads, and that you keep it extremely soapy when you use it.

 

I was always told the salt on the roads eats the chrome off your rims.