The original finish on my 87 rims are all pealing and discolored and really look awful. What's the deal? I've noticed other MB around my same year look kinda similar but not quite as bad. What can i do. Are the rims an alluminum alloy? Can they be blasted and powdercoated or chromed or what?

thanks in advance!

no, it's never been to an automatic car wash, however, i called my father who owned it before me (he picked it up from the factory in Germany in 87' while in the military) and he proceded to inform me that he's been using 'Simple Green' on them to clean the brake dust all these years. That stuff might be the cause, it is pretty powerful. So I wouldn't recomend using it to any one on painted rims. Luckily they are as true as can be. I just wonder what finish i can put on them. Are they strong enough for blasting and powdercoating or chroming?

Simple Green will do exactly what you are describing. It will flat ruin a set of wheels.
I would recommend that you either have the wheels blasted, painted and clearcoated or just have them blasted and polished.

Here are some pics to show what I mean...
This is not a wheel like yours but, I'm sure the quality of the finish is similar:


Here's what paint & clearcoat looks like:


And here's polished with no paint:


The polish kinda looks like chrome but, it doesn't weaken your wheels like chrome does. The downside is that you have to use some Flitz or other metal polish every once in a while to keep your wheels looking great.

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Use Quicksilver or Meguiars cleaner it wont hurt your rims as much. You can have them repainted for about $95.00-$120.00 per rim. They look good assuming you have an experienced place work on them. I wouldnt recomend you to do it yourself. I tried to do it myself and it looked like crap, wasted my time, etc. It takes experience, skill, patience, etc. It also makes a mess. Better to leave it to the pros.

I had my 15 hole rims powdercoated at a place
called Bay Area Powder Coating in Oakland, CA.
I had them done in light gray metallic with a clearcoat.

The finish ended up smooth and glossy with a little
sparkle. It is supposed to be much more durable than
the factory paint, but a tire shop ended up chipping
up all four rims and ruining the edges with their
pneumatic wrench, warping the rotors, and bending the
rims. It's been a disaster and I have since replaced
everything, but I still miss the powdercoat finish that
would have held up very well over time (it's baked on
at 400 degrees) had the tire shop not messed them
up. It's better than anything you could get with paint.

They beadblasted and chemically stripped the rims and
did the prep work for me for $50 per rim. $200 for
that kind of finish is not a bad deal at all. It took
only a few days to have them done.

If you want them polished there are places that do wheel
polishing for ~$75 per rim.

If you go to all that trouble make darn sure nobody
uses pneumatic tools--the sockets fit too loosely and will
mess up the edges of your bolt holes.

Justin Dobbs
87 300D turbo 199k (with new type 8 rims)

I had to drop my $0.02 here. Simple green is not the cause of the wheels deteriorating condition. Simple Green is actually one of, if not the most gentle cleaners that you can use. Your wheels, from what I can see are in the condition from having the brake dust build up on them at one time or another. The quik silver cleaner is caustic and if not properly used, it can potentially ruin your wheels. The key to MBZ wheels is just to clean them often. Anytime you brake dust is created. At the same time a tremendous amount of heat is created, which is then transfered to the wheels. Things that accelearte this is overspray of tire dressings on wheels. The oil cause the brake dust to stick, then cook to the wheel. I suggest having the wheels repainted to factory specs and just clean them often. My aunt has a 300SD with 675,000+ miles and the wheels looks great. All she does is wash the car once a week.
Good luck!