I wouldn't do it. I've had and seen clear coat problems with alloy wheels and those were Toyota factory wheels, professionally done under Toyota quality engineer's guidance. Once they start going bad it is a lot more work to polish them up. I just keep a good coat of wax on them.
I agree with this - do not clear coat wheels that are not clear coated from the factory. I had a set of Weld RoadHawk's clear powder coated. The wheels eventually started to corroad behind the powder coating and I had to strip it all off.
IF they are not clear coated, just take good care of them.
WHAT? I disagree because
something needs to be done to protect them. I'm speaking from experience because I had uncoated aluminum wheels ("Ultra" brand "aluminum mod" wheels that look exactly like the ones pictured). It was a difference of $15-20/wheel when new that I really regret not paying to get the American Racing clear coated wheels that look identical.
I used my crummy wheels for 4 years before very recently giving up on them. They were severely corroded on the entire surface and looked horrible. I HAD cleaned them at about 2 years old with a product called Xtreme Wheel Cleaner or something like that. It took a TON of hard work scrubbing off the bad corrosion just to look decent again.
In Colorado they use magnesium chloride instead of salt for the roads during the winter. It's very corrosive on softer metals such as aluminum. My wheels were ruined after 4 years with no clear coat. I had waxed them when new, but that didn't last long at all.
I don't know what the answer to the question is about what to use to clear coat them. But I can tell you that you definitely need to clearcoat them with something when they're not originally clearcoated from the factory. Heck, I'm awefully tempted to re-clear coat my new factory clear coated wheels after the hell I went through with the last set of wheels. I now have $65/wheel new but "blemished" aluminum wheels that are clear coated and I'm MUCH happier.
