Chrome TT wheels, are they acually chromed?

[steveyblack]

i know some people who use chrome paint and say its actually chrome, im wondering if the supra TT wheels(chrome ones) were actually chromed? if so, can you somehow strip the chrome to repaint them, or can you power coat over it?

thanks
steveyblack

 

[suprastanger507mgte]

yes they are. You can see the chrome peel off on damaged wheels.The chrome will be harder than actual chrome paint.

 

[GotTurbos?]

No, I'm pretty sure they are polished. Plenty of people have chromed them, but stock they are polished.

 

[7MsuprO]

IIRC some were polished and some chromed. 97-98 polished and everything else was chromed but dont quote me.

 

[GotTurbos?]

IIRC some were polished and some chromed. 97-98 polished and everything else was chromed but dont quote me.

I'm pretty sure all 93-96 TT wheels were just silver. The polished ones were 97-98 only.

Sorry for quoting you

 

[7MsuprO]

meh you could be right....and how daarree you?!

 

[Jeff Lange]

The catalog from Toyota calls them polished, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are.

 

[GotBoost?]

AFIK, most had a raw aluminum finish, some were polished, and some were chromed. Mine are chromed, which i don't like. So i took them to a wheel repair shop, and they said to refinish them, the chrome had to be stripped off, and they would powdercoat any color I wanted, for $400 for all four. IHTH.

 

[OneJoeZee]

97-98 = polish

pre 97 = chrome (option. dealer option? idk) Most of them are silver.

As far as I know.

You can tell the difference if you see a chrome MKIV wheel right next to a polish one.

 

[Jeff Lange]

Yup, looking into it further, 1993-1996, factory wheels are all silver coated. 1997-98 N/A are still silver coated. 1997-98 Turbo are polished (not chromed).

Pre-97 chrome wheels were not a factory thing, they were either port-installed or dealer installed, and the the centre caps for them did not have the Toyota emblem on them, where as the 97+ polished wheels do have the Toyota emblem.

 

[BorHor]

Good info Jeff.

 

[Jeff Lange]

97-98 Polished:

93-96 Chromed:

 

[OneJoeZee]

Good info Joe.

Thanks. :bigthumb:

 

[Supracentral]

97-98 = polish

pre 97 = chrome (option. dealer option? idk) Most of them are silver.

As far as I know.

You can tell the difference if you see a chrome MKIV wheel right next to a polish one.

Yea, you can tell.

My MKIV has polished wheels off of a 1998. My MKIII has chrome wheels from a 1995.

The polished wheels are considerably lighter too.

 

[marc3]

the centre caps for them did not have the Toyota emblem on them, where as the 97+ polished wheels do have the Toyota emblem.

mine were polished(originaly painted, but someone polished them at 1 point), did not have the emblem, the center cap was plastic, with a thin piece of aluminium glued over it. when i removed this piece of aluminium, the logo was indented inwards into the plastic.
where as my buddy has original polished wheels ,and his centercaps have the emblem indented outwards.

i also notiched that the machining inside the wheels aren't the same... anyone know anything about that?

 

[Supracentral]

i also notiched that the machining inside the wheels aren't the same... anyone know anything about that?

As I said, the 1998 polished wheels are lighter, this is not just the lack of coating. They are intentionally lighter as a performance improvement. Toyota removed some material from the 1998's.

The 93 - 97 wheels weigh 23.75 lbs for the front and 26.55 lbs for the rear.

The 1998 wheels are 23.60 lbs for the front and 25.40 lbs for the rear.

They are lighter than a set of GramLight 57 Pro's.

 

[Jeff Lange]

mine were polished(originaly painted, but someone polished them at 1 point), did not have the emblem, the center cap was plastic, with a thin piece of aluminium glued over it. when i removed this piece of aluminium, the logo was indented inwards into the plastic.
where as my buddy has original polished wheels ,and his centercaps have the emblem indented outwards.

Yup, that sounds like the earlier "chrome" option centre caps. As far as I know they were the regular centre caps modified by a company in the US with the thin metal over top to match the wheels.

 

[jugodegolf]

I wonder where these caps came from?

 

[Wills7MGTE]

either way I like em, But Black TT wheels are much nicer