Hi, all.

We recently inherited a 2009 Saturn Aura XE from my wife's grandmother. It only has 65K miles, so we are fixing it up and giving it to our college-age daughter for her first car. The car had been sitting for a couple years, so had the shop go through it top to bottom and address any issues. It drives great. But it's quite dirty. We are having a detailer come over on Saturday to detail the inside and outside to get it looking great again. But the wheel covers are in very rough shape. Rather than replace them I'm going to try to clean, sand, and re-paint them. What steps and specific products would you recommend for that? I see there's some Rust-Oleum High-Gloss Silver Spray Paint specifically for wheels at Lowes that looks good. For those who have experience in this area, what are your thoughts? Thanks!

Chris

anytime I'm painting metal or plastic I use a self etching primer, you can get it at Lowes or any auto parts store in a spray can.

You'll want to clean them up first to get rid of any dirt, oil, cleaner residue, anything that would impede the ability for the primer to adhere...

Have you priced new wheel covers?

^^^Seriously, maybe even check with junkyards for replacements in good condition. I can imagine it's really worth the time/effort to rehab the existing wheel covers, especially if you want them to look good, and stay looking good. I could be wrong though...

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^^Seriously, maybe even check with junkyards for replacements in good condition. I can imagine it's really worth the time/effort to rehab the existing wheel covers, especially if you want them to look good, and stay looking good. I could be wrong though...

May even get lucky to get straight wheels from a higher trim that don't need the hubcaps.
Should be the same wheels at the Chevrolet Malibu, so just about any from that should fit as well.

Otherwise, maybe have the detailer blast them clean, then prime/paint afterward?

Leave them off and drive around with your nuts showing!

Hi, all. Thanks for the feedback so far. I have, in fact, priced new wheel covers and they're like $135 each. I've found a few stragglers on eBay or like $45, but IDK if it's worth the time and effort to hunt down a full set. These are plastic wheel covers. At least the nuts attaching them are. I am definitely going to have the detailer do what he can to them. A couple have a lot of paint chipping off. So we will see.

Try the junk yard. There's not much demand for a dead brand like Saturn, so they may come pretty cheap.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris17404:
Hi, all. Thanks for the feedback so far. I have, in fact, priced new wheel covers and they're like $135 each. I've found a few stragglers on eBay or like $45, but IDK if it's worth the time and effort to hunt down a full set. These are plastic wheel covers. At least the nuts attaching them are. I am definitely going to have the detailer do what he can to them. A couple have a lot of paint chipping off. So we will see.

Does it use outside threaded lug nuts?
I remember my 96 Saturn SL2 had plastic 'lugs' on the covers that threaded onto the wheel lug nuts.

Not sure if the Aura uses the same steel wheels as the Malibu, but Malibu wheel covers could be an option (apart from them having the Chevrolet logo instead of Saturn).
On alloy wheels, you'd just need to source center caps, if you found a decent set of Malibu wheels.

I'm guessing GM sold many more Malibus than Auras, so that may be a simpler source to find a replacement.

You might check auto wrecking companies and look for aluminum wheels. You might be able to get them cheap and not have to go to so much effort.

Looks like some XE trim Auras had alloy wheels, standard:


Otherwise, I'd source a set of LT2 V6 or LTZ Malibu wheels
LT2 V6:


LTZ 4cyl & V6

My vote is to thourghouly clean what you have and get some rattle can paint to make look nice... New wheels aand new wheel covers is not going to get it to run any better..Is It???.. I get that the younger ones want something new and fresh looking but that also might encourage someone to 5finger discount shopping of the upgraded wheels..... Good luck...... drill sgt.

Thanks, everyone. Yes, these are the plastic base model XE wheel covers seen here. In fact, this is the exact same color car.



Thanks for all the tips. I'm going to call around to a few junkyards tomorrow and see what they may have. I'm certainly going to have the detailer do what he can, and then possibly refurbish them myself. I'll let you know how it goes.

Chris

^^^Yeah, those are actually Aluminum Wheels there, but at least we know what kind of look you're going for...

Is it a V6? Looks similar to the LT2 wheels on the above Malibu & we only on the V6 model there.

LKQ could be another source, local at least, as shipping would probably be crazy.

If yours are alloys & not steel wheels + covers, they may be salvageable & may just need a cleanup & new clearcoat.

They are most definitely plastic wheel covers, not alloy wheels.

I've painted a few plastic parts under the hood using Rustoleum & Duplicolor automotive plastic spray paint and wetsanding them. They still look good.

IMO, just buy an aftermarket set for $55 and be done with it.
I'd personally rather drive around with the bare black steelies than rattle can painted covers.

quote:

Originally posted by Chris17404:
They are most definitely plastic wheel covers, not alloy wheels.

Honestly, I wouldn't have questioned it except that you can clearly see the front Brake Caliper in that pic...And you can actually look through the front wheel between the bottom two spokes. You can see the light reflection on the floor/turntable behind the wheel, as well as the barrel of the wheel in that picture.

The Wally World link provided above, confirms that the Aura came with Wheel Covers that look just like that though...

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:

quote:

Originally posted by Chris17404:
They are most definitely plastic wheel covers, not alloy wheels.

Honestly, I wouldn't have questioned it except that you can clearly see the front Brake Caliper in that pic...And you can actually look through the front wheel between the bottom two spokes. You can see the light reflection on the floor/turntable behind the wheel, as well as the barrel of the wheel in that picture.

The Wally World link provided above, confirms that the Aura came with Wheel Covers that look just like that though...

IIRC that generation Malibu/Aura used a spoked steel wheel with caps, instead of the more solid design.

From my days working at Saturn, the XE's had steel wheels with plastic hub caps. The uplevel XR's had Alloy Wheels.