1973 forged Wheels were they clear coated?

I have a set for my 73 and i was thinking of getting them clear coated. Were they coated originally from the factory? The thing that sucks with mine is they won't hold air!

Clear coating was virtually unknown in 1972-3, so no they were plain polished aluminum.

I ordered 73 new and still have along with 4 sets of the aluminum wheels. It is correct that they were not clear coated. But also they were not polished either. They were high speed turned in a lathe with a diamond tool to get a very bright finish. The slots had marks from the milling cutters and not finished at all.

If your wheels are loosing air you need to have the tires removed and take a wire brush, lacquer thinner and remove the build up of rubber around the rim and bead. Look for any damage caused by tire changer. Also when they put a valve stem in have them put RTV around the seating area. Same with steel wheels they should not leak if you have good clean smooth surface for the tire bead and valve to seat on.

When the tires are mounted soap up the bead area and look for bubbles. Also look at the tire beads and make sure there is no damage before mounting. I have seen some tire shops ruin a bead on a new tire mounting it being careless.

On wheels that are chrome plated, like Magnum 500's, there is always a chance that air can go out under the chrome. Ford actually had a recall on the new little Thunderbirds because of air going out under the cracked chrome on those aluminum wheels.

99.9% of people with the factory aluminum wheels polish them but that is not factory correct. You can have them faced again but prices I got were crazy expensive hundreds per wheel.

When you wash them you need to blow dry or wipe the wheels to prevent water spots.

If you have broke screws for center caps drill from the back side after soaking with penetrating oil and they usually screw out the front.

It is not necessarily a bad thing that the original wheels were not clear-coated. I had a '79 TA with Pontiac 400 and 4 speed back in '83 (rare to have the actual Pontiac 400 for '79) and it had the 15" X 8" snowflake wheels. They were clear-coated from the factory but it was all chipping off on a 4 year old car with 35,000 miles on it, and the wheels looked horrible that way. I think I gently used 00 steel wool and then some sort of mag polish to remove the rest of the clear-coat very carefully. Afterward they looked great and I just kept some wax on them. I took them off one wheel at a time and probably spent 5 or so hours per wheel, doing one wheel per day. Oh to have that much free time again! I de-smogged that car, opened up the shaker hood scoop with a dremel tool (they were closed since '73), and performed a several year catalytic converter "test" using a test pipe. heh heh That car really pulled hard for a '79. No computers yet so it was pretty much an old school setup.

Thanks guys. I think i will try to restore them myself. I may have to have a chip welded though here and there... Since they are forged they should be weldable

Here is another thread on clear coating Aluminum Wheels:

http://www.7173mustangs.com/thread-forged-aluminum-wheels?highlight=aluminum+wheels