I just bought a 2003 Supercab XLT w/ the 16 in premium wheels. the drivers side rims are perfect but on the other side it looks like they have these growths growing on them closer to the middle where the bolts are. One friend has the same year and has had it since it was new and he is starting to get these growths on his now too. He says he has never hit a curb since he's had it and he said these "growths" all sudden just appeared. you wouldn't really even notice them but they are a different color than rims so they stick out. What is going on with these rims? Greatly appreciate if anybody could give me there insight.

 

pictures would def help

 

ok. i'm getting it next saturday. bare with me. THANKS!

 

Maybe clear coat failure?

 

it sounds like the clearcoat bubbling off like mine did. the bare aluminum underneath starts to corrode and turn darker color

 

what can you do to cure this or just touch it up w/ some paint?

 

We sure the tires aren't deteriorating from inside???


Get us some pics. If the tire is eating itself from inside from a defect carcass, it's not entirely safe to drive on 'em...



Only reason I bring it up is because some folks have an issue with terminology mixing up wheels and tires and the last thing I wanna hear is a tire sidewall bulging out and popping and you wrecking at 75mph. My little brother had a couple year old tire that was bulging bubbles on the sidwall from carcass dying.

 

He mentions that its near the bolts in the original post. I had to reread it to see that.

 

O.K. my 05 ranger 16 rims looked like crap when I bought the truck. Big dissapointment. Ford must have used some cheap clearcoat on them (I'm a MOPAR guy) but anyway what I did was use aircraft stripper on the wheels and completely removed the clearcoat. where the corroded aluminum was needed work. Brass wire brush(small) and lots of elbowgrease. what I didnt know was that these rims are not smooth,after removing the clearcoat the wheel surface was textured like a record disc. you'd never know that unless you stripped them.Then I polished them by hand. They look alot better but now the winter is slowly corroding them again,not to the extent the were but they will need some elbow grease in the spring. If you let them go the corrosion will get worse and worse.after the next cleaning I will attempt to clearcoat them myself.