Tirerack warned me to be very careful with the lips. They said not to drive in the winter as salt would damage them. Are they more likely to get damaged by road salt then other wheel finishes or something? I'm just wondering if I need to do anything else special with the wheels. I only use soap & water to wash. Also, i've always waxed my wheels, alright to do with the anodized lips?

 

Anodized lips have no clear coat. They are bare metal so they will oxidize especially when exposed to salt. Washing your wheels with car wash soap is a good idea. Definitely stay away from any acid based wheel cleaners with these wheels as the lip will flash oxidize. Waxing them will also help to keep them clean and shiney. On occasion you'll need to use a metal polish on the lip to keep it as shiney as possible. I like Flitz metal polish myself, but Meguiar's NXT metal polysh is also decent.

 

yes, anodize will withstand salt only for a limited time before it fails. Hardcoat anodize would be the best way to go, but I'm sure it's not. Is the anodize dyed any specific color? Or is it clear anodize? Is it a mult-pc rim..? Just wondering that because I anodize for a living for a production basis, and man, it would take a lot of masking to anodize a whole set of rims, otherwise, I'm kind of skeptic about them being actual anodize.... unless it was "made to order" sorta rims.

 

Not exactly. They aren't bare metal. Anodizing is a protective finish. Wheels like the Volks have polished lips which are then clear anodized to protect them.

I hate when oxidation removers call themselves polishes. Metal polish like what you are refering to will not work on anodized metal since it is not bare. That stuff is really just a dirt and light oxidation remover for bare metals. Paint polishes and compounds won't work either on anozidation. I bought some Volks used. They had damaged lips from some chemical. Nothing worked. I even called Mackin industries to see what they recommend. They would need to be buffed on a high speed buffing wheel with with true metal compounds and polishes. The anodizing had to come all the way off for them to get at the metal, re-polish it, then clear coat it.

Some companies like Kinesis leave their lips polished. They don't apply any anodizing or clear coat so then you can use the Flitz type of oxidation remover to get them to sparkle again, just like your mom's silver.

 

anodized lips:

 

Oops! I don't know why I wrote that. I was actually thinking of a polished lip.

 

based off of that pic, there's probably hardly any coating on there. But then again, that lighting is bad. It definitely has been polished by machine or electropolished for that shiny finish. A typical clear anodize is a buildup of .0003 mls <---- changes the color of the aluminum noticeably. That almost looks like bare aluminum.