Scraponomics Episode 124: The nuances in aluminum wheels

“Layer by layer art strips life bare.” — Robert Musil, Austrian writer

These days, in lieu of hubcaps, you usually see full aluminum rims on vehicles. However, here’s something you may not have noticed before.

Looks can be deceiving.

When aluminum rims come in as scrap material, they’ll either be completely aluminum, or aluminum with chrome, and some may even contain plastic cover!

So how you know the difference?

The first thing you can do is get out your trusty magnet, and tie a string to the end of it. Dangle the magnet a couple of inches away from the front of the aluminum rim. If the magnet draws to the rim, it means the rim is chrome plated, since chrome is slightly magnetic.

If the magnet doesn’t draw at all, you’ve now narrowed it down to two options: full aluminum or plastic cover. To figure out which one it is, the next thing you can do is turn the rim over and look at the inside of it. You’ll know instantly whether there’s the cover is plastic because you’ll see the glue that adheres the cover to the rim. This is where processing the rim as scrap becomes a pain. It’s a pretty laborious task getting that pesky plastic cover off of the rim. Someone has to manually crack the thing and wrench it off with a crowbar. It’s worth it, though, to upgrade the value of the aluminum wheel as scrap.

On the other hand, if the magnet doesn’t stick and you don’t see any glue on the inside, congratulations, you have yourself a solid aluminum rim.

The world of scrap goes deep, and the more you understand the layers, the more informed you’ll be.

I bet you’ll start noticing aluminum rims more today.

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