Polishing the wheels might actually have a nice effect. I've never seen polished 87s though so dunno.

Now polished stainless steel is different from chroming. I actually like polished aluminum or stainless steel. The only chrome wheels I like on an X5 is the style 87.

I'm talking about polished aluminum. Isn't that what oem wheels are made of? I don't like any chrome wheels.

OEM bMW wheels are just plain matte silver.

:doh: I was thinking along lines of polishing the aluminum that wheel is actually made of. I don't think that'd work out too well not having anything protecting the surface of wheel:rofl: .

Polishing a silver(aluminium) wheel is a slow manual patient process if it is to be done properly.It involves removing/sanding off all the paint and primer on the wheel until you reach the raw aluminium which is then polished with an orbital buffer using a specific metal polish.Lastly, you protect you hard work by applying a good car polish.
As you can see from the attach.pics ,polishing is not as shiny as chrome but in my opinion is more natural and the great advantage is if you scratch your wheel,you can easily just sand/smooth down the scratch and get your Orbital buffer out!The silver AEZ wheels were very badly treated on the outer edge!Even working just on this area ,the treated wheel looks brand new!Alright ,so I cheated by shining up the tyre!

Powers1 I love polished rims. The ones you're showing look great.

It depends on the color of the car and wheel style. In the past six months I saw two imola red X5s. One was Griza's 4.6 and other was a 4.8. Both had 20" style 87 chromes. They both looked good. Imola red is little blingy color and therfore chrome wheels look good on it. Wagner, see a TiAg X5 with chrome wheels and see how it looks.

It works really well if you use the correct process and materials as I explained earlier but about once a year(which is acceptable!),it is advisable to just polish them out again to keep that high gloss shiny look!So,it just requires additional maintenance!Now ,you can just apply the metal polish by hand followed by the normal car polish.
Love working on aluminium.I have even polish to a high gloss the aluminium
cover of my daughters ageing Sony Erics. T610 phone.Very gratifying.

Hey, what about gold? Or the one's that keep spinning when you've stopped?