Cragar S/S wheels, is chrome any good?

Thinking about buying some old school Cragar S/S wheels for my project, but I have read in the past that the chrome begins to rust after a year or two of sitting in the garage. I understand that they have been made in Mexico for a while now. Can anybody give some input on the quality of the chrome for durability?

I have had mine for about 6 years now. The car sees 1,500 miles or so a year, is stored inside and the only water it sees is when it is washed. Rust is trying to pop through in several spots on every wheel. The chrome is nice and shiny. The rust seems to be coming from behind the chrome.

There was a picture on one of these websites a few years ago that purported to show stacks of rusty bare steel wheels getting ready to be chromed. Whoever posted it said that the wheels were not prepped with any care (if at all) and were chromed with rust and such in place.

Cragars will look good for a while, but from what I have seen, they eventually start rusting in the corners and grooves. No matter how good you take care of them.

I've been considering a set also. They have a one piece chromed aluminum wheel again which should solve the rust problem plus they are drilled 5x4.5 so no unilug BS. Whether the chrome stays on the aluminum any better IDK.

I do hear of out of round and runout horror stories tho but that is with the 2 piece wheels.

Kevin

I have a set of the one piece polished S/S wheels, 15x7 up front and 15x8 rear. I love them. I put McGard lugs on too- nothing will rust!

Pretty sure that's because that wheel is all aluminium ...

Weren't the wheels being disgused in the thread alum. center with a steel band or is that the Keystone Klassics only?

But not the lug nuts- I've seen many cheapo rusty lug nuts before-
McGards have a lifetime warranty

The wheels are not made in mexico, but the chrome work is done there. They truck them from the plant in Ontario here down and back up again. The company has had numerous issues with the different platers they use and it still seems to be on going. Turn around order time on plated products from them is like 6+ weeks at the moment...

I deal with Carlstar (former Carlise) who make them on a regular basis...just was on the phone to them yesterday about my latest order of chrome steel outers actually...

And yes, even with bare components I get more then I should of quality control issues..very frustrating.

Jeff,

I'm looking at getting a new set of 15X8 and 15X12 Cragar S/S's, would it behoove me to have them dechromed electrostatically, then rechromed? is it possible to buy then in "raw" form, then have them chromed?

FYI...I'm familiar with the need to "cure" them after chroming to avoid Hydrogen embrittlement


Mike

They keep changing platers, have issues with some, go to others, etc, etc. So always seems like a roll of the dice what you get, and with the long lead time it doesn't help either. I do not believe they will sell the S/S in raw form. They don't want to sell components of them either, I have tried to buy only the centers in the past.

As for stripping and rechroming them...I don't doubt you wouldn't get a better quality chrome job from a dedicated place, but if it is worth the cost... hard to say?

Sort of hard to know what the chrome work will hold up like on them out of the box until you've had them a little while. You could always inspect them first off and see just how good it is.

I know I just had an entire pallet of defective chrome 14" x 7" outers, and a bunch of bad 15" x 8" as well...

The classic/original S/S wheel is a composite steel/aluminum wheel as well...

Where Cragar's come from...for anyone interested..

This was from a couple years ago by the way, they have a fair amount less of stock around lately it seems like to me...

Thanks for responding Jeff, I'll guess I'll roll the dice, see how they hold up?, then I'll bust out the coin for rechroming if they start to "peel"


Mike

No problem Mike !

I am trying to get them to be sure and inspect all of the chrome I get before wrapping the pallet up this end. The bad pallet of 14" outers wasn't noticed until it got to Oz and my buddy went to pull a few off to sell and found they were all defective. And order before that I had a bunch of bad ones too, poorly polished before plating, blistering, peeling, etc.

I had some bad 16" ones too..they were "raw" I ordered but when I was unstacked the pallet this end to squeeze them in the container, turned out I had 3 or 4 of them that were chrome outers someone had run over with a 60 grit disc it looked like and tossed in with the raw stuff...

How old?

I bought some in 88 and never had rust issues, but that was a long time ago.

Can't really compare the old stuff to the new. The componets were being made in different plants and the chrome work was done locally.

I have experience with the older Cragars and don't know much about the new ones.

The problems I hear of the nooks and crannies rusting first tells me that it's a prep issue. No doubt they take the raw wheels Oz showed and do a quickie blasting to clean them for chrome.

There's no good way to get down inside the crevices of a welded steel wheel in order to remove rust. Any rust between the center and outer of the wheel gets covered by the initial plating. If the plating does not take well in that crevice the rust will slowly grow until it pops the initial plating off the steel. That's when more oxygen gets to it and the growth takes off.

The plating can be sufficient to smother existing tiny rust accumulation but it's no guarantee.

The plating is likely done in Mexico to get around the EPA's ultra strict requirements. Obviously, labor is much cheaper there as well.

The outers go from production (where I showed you..) to polishing, then to plating. Then back up to be welded together with the centers. (They are not chromed once assembled)

Some of the less than stellar ones I have recieved..not polished properly before plating. (other were chipped/peeling already too)

That is crappy OZ, guess I should of kept the old ones I had.

I bought a new set of Keystones (same company) a few years ago. The car sat outside in the summer for 2 months. It got rained on a few times. The wheels started to rust. No warranty for rust. I'll never buy another product from that company again.

Glad I saw this thread. What are the chrome wheels to buy then? I was going to buy a new set of cragar SS's, but after seeing this thread!!??

I really like the look of the cragar SS's. Funny as I used to hate them back in the day, but now.........

Those wheels did the same thing 45 years ago. Too bad they haven't put some effort into doing it right in all that time.

Sheldon

I like Keystones, but they have the same rust and pitting issues as the Cragar SS wheels. For the dedicated types one option would be be to buy some already rusty swap meet specials for dirt cheap and cut them apart and send the centers out to be rechromed. Then you could locate a shop that builds custom steel wheels and ship them the newly rechromed centers and have them weld them into some new hoops.

The only problem with that, is you end up with the same quality of chrome outers again, as Carlstar/Cragar supply most other places with outers.

Not all of them of course, but quite a few. Getting raw ones and then having them plated might be a better way to go, just expensive is all..


There is another supplier that I have used, but with them you have to buy (from memory) a minimum of 20 pallets at a time of any one given size. Basically an entire run of any size you need.

Oh, and... I don't really know what the idea solution would be either.

Personally, just have to go through them as best as possible and try for the best quality out of a batch as possible for our customers in turn in Oz who will end up buying them.

Yeah, if you did all that work and still ended up with their poorly chromed hoops then what would be the point? I know chrome shops won't do 2 piece wheels, but if you had money to burn you could buy a rusty set, take them apart, rechrome the centers and the hoops, and then ship them off someplace to have them jigged up and reassembled. Probably end up burning thru $1500.00 or more before you were done.

Guess it all depends on how much you like Cragars (and raw outers are pretty cheap at least.)


Personally, I don't like them and rather go with an aluminum/billet/forged wheel.

Polishing is easy after all..

Are the current wheels the same way ?

Yep..I ment the classic, in the sense of not like the 1 piece style ones someone posted a pic of.

The S/S is still like they were, chrome steel outer with a chromed aluminum center.

The 08/61 Composite has different backspacing than the 610 series solids also.

http://www.cragarwheel.com/images/medialibrary/Cragar%2008_61.pdf

http://www.cragarwheel.com/images/medialibrary/1335468555347.pdf

Are there any options regarding a chrome look powder coating? Might not be quite as shiny as real chrome but certainly easier to apply.

Unrelated question:

What exactly holds the 2 pieces together besides friction? I'm not aware of any welding rod that allows you to weld aluminum to steel.

Kevin

There are steel inserts that are molded in when they cast the center.

Mine rust when you sneeze near them.... Mine are even the older supposedly better quality chrome back then from the 80's. They have been off & on my car since around 1985.

The chrome is garbage. I have a set that are a little over a year old. Out of the box you could see the copper in some spots. I put two coats of wax on them. By the end of the season you can see rust trying to pop through in a few spots. Polished them, 2 more coats of wax, and sat all winter. Keep alot of wax on them, it will help. It shines nice when its clean, but its definitely not good quality.

I figure when it looks like crap I'll send them someplace for good chrome.

This one was about 2 days old.. right out of production to my hands nearly...