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Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2361832
08/29/17 06:16 PM
08/29/17 06:16 PM
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burdar Offline
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AIH in Dubuque won't do them?

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2361982
08/29/17 10:13 PM
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Okay guys you'll have to forgive my stupidity here for a minute as I know absolutely nothing about chroming. But why would chroming a steel wheel be any different then chroming any other steel car or motorcycle part? Don't understand why a lot of shops won't do rims.

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: BlueRacer69] #2362000
08/29/17 10:31 PM
08/29/17 10:31 PM
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Neil Offline
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Steel wheels are made of 2 pieces and getting the chrome to stick in the seam when the wheel is complete is probably rather difficult. As far as I know chrome wheels are plated apart at the factory and then welded, or riveted, together on the backside.

Never talked to a shop about having any wheels plated before so I'm just guessing......

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: 3hundred] #2362078
08/30/17 12:10 AM
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Originally Posted By 3hundred
Originally Posted By jcc
I always thought chroming a wheel required special attention/equipment, in that the way the current flows to the nearest surface, a problem with a deeper? dish wheels, to get even plating requires special fixtures?, this is obviously not my speciality, and you would want to make sure the plater has wheel experience/equipment/something similar to show their quality of work. twocents


I tried to get some redone a couple three decades ago. Hydrogen embrittlement was the concern. There were some quality issues that weren't show stoppers, but embrittlement was. You might look into the chrome paint as an alternative?

No idea what this might cost?

NASCAR eventually banned chromed wheels for this reason.


Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Soopernaut] #2362114
08/30/17 01:14 AM
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Speeddemon Offline OP
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Thank you for the info.

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: burdar] #2362116
08/30/17 01:19 AM
08/30/17 01:19 AM
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Speeddemon Offline OP
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Originally Posted By burdar
AIH in Dubuque won't do them?


AIH was the first call I made. Then shop in Moline, just from what they said not many shop's that rechrome want to even touch rims. These are two of them.

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Neil] #2362120
08/30/17 01:28 AM
08/30/17 01:28 AM
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Originally Posted By Neil
Steel wheels are made of 2 pieces and getting the chrome to stick in the seam when the wheel is complete is probably rather difficult. As far as I know chrome wheels are plated apart at the factory and then welded, or riveted, together on the backside.

Never talked to a shop about having any wheels plated before so I'm just guessing......


This is the problem, getting the tight space where the wheel center meets the hoop clean enough for chrome or power coating to stick. Media blasting won't do it. Possibly a dipping process will. Newly manufactured wheels with clean metal don't have this issue when they get chromed or powder coated.
I had a set of 15x7" Cop wheels power coated. I was told to expect rust to show within a year or so where the center/hoop welded section was. One year later, I had rust peeking it's ugliness out at that spot.

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2362177
08/30/17 08:54 AM
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With two piece steel wheels one way to plate them is to remove the centers from the original hoops plate the centers then install in new hoops.

I think Stockton used to do this, it was expensive. Last time I spoke to them was probably twenty years ago.

Red

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2362323
08/30/17 02:15 PM
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Thank you all for replying, I think with the cost and with the chrome holding up, I may have to go a different route and buy some aluminium polished slot rims.

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2362340
08/30/17 02:39 PM
08/30/17 02:39 PM
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Cool thread. Remember back in the day when guys would just get random stuff chromed because it was cool? Those days are gone....


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Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Dixie] #2362345
08/30/17 02:45 PM
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Colleyville
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Originally Posted By Dixie
Cool thread. Remember back in the day when guys would just get random stuff chromed because it was cool? Those days are gone....


If I remember, isn't that how chrome reverse wheels got started? shruggy

Robert


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Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2362348
08/30/17 02:53 PM
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Several people I know have sent items to Paul's Chrome and have been very happy with the results. In general, good chrome shops are hard to find with all the EPA regulations, etc. And it's pretty pricey stuff. Paul's is local to me so more car crafters around here use them. I did look on their website to see if they mentioned anything about chrome wheels. See: http://www.paulschrome.com/index.php/our-pricing/price-ranges You could easily buy new wheels for the cost of rechroming so the rims would have to be something special.

Here's what they had to say:

Wheels: Wheels are a very difficult item to deal with from a plating perspective because of the offsets and corners. Electricity passing through the plating solution to the part deposits metal particles onto the part being plated. Since electricity always takes the shortest path to the ground, all of the metal wants to build up on the outside of the wheel and the edges. The deeper inside the drum of the wheel, the thinner the plating is. Therefore, even though we could physically plate a 3 foot wide wheel, any wheel wider than 8 inches is not a good idea to have plated, unless you specialize in wheels and use auxiliary anodes on overhead crane racks instead of our process putting them on individual racks and moving them from one tank to another by hand. Due to people driving daily in road salt without washing and waxing their wheels, we have no choice but to only offer a 1 year guarantee on wheels. Prices are approximate and assume wheels are less than 8 inches wide. Most car wheels cost $250 to $450 per wheel, and most


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Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: 3hundred] #2362392
08/30/17 04:14 PM
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Originally Posted By 3hundred
Originally Posted By Dixie
Cool thread. Remember back in the day when guys would just get random stuff chromed because it was cool? Those days are gone....


If I remember, isn't that how chrome reverse wheels got started? shruggy

Robert
That's what I was looking to do. I have 2 stock factory steel rims in the small 4 inch bolt pattern for a 69 Dart. I was looking to have them chromed like the old chrome reverse rims back in the 60's. Looks like is pretty expensive.

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: BlueRacer69] #2362399
08/30/17 04:29 PM
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Originally Posted By BlueRacer69
Okay guys you'll have to forgive my stupidity here for a minute as I know absolutely nothing about chroming. But why would chroming a steel wheel be any different then chroming any other steel car or motorcycle part? Don't understand why a lot of shops won't do rims.


The problem with wheel chroming that I first mentioned in this thread is if I can explain in more detail, its an electric current flow process, and the current like/prefers to flow from the platers anode(?) to the wheels closest surface, the problem is most of the plating favors that surface in lieu of the farther surfaces, ie plating is very uneven. You can see this sometimes on inside exposed corners of bumpers. Getting an anode inside the wheel to be equal distance from a majority of the surfaces, at the same time, is likely a process most platers would not rather experiment with, and the hydrogen embrittlement excuse is good cover. Also understand in the SAE process linked above, it clearly references heat treated/hardness levels not useful in wheels that need ductility.
That doesn't mean chrome is not without its downsides, one being the base metal can crack underneath the chrome, and not be visible on the outside, not good. twocents

edit: I just saw member "rumblefish" just address well what I repeated above.

Last edited by jcc; 08/30/17 04:37 PM.

Reality check, that half the population is smarter then 50% of the people and it's a constantly contested fact.
Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: jcc] #2362417
08/30/17 04:59 PM
08/30/17 04:59 PM
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I was heavy into BMX when I grew up and now looking back most of the frames, forks, and handlebars that the neighbor kids broke were chrome plated. Might be coincidence since chrome bikes were "it" back then so they were everywhere.

On my dream car build list is a straight axle + altered wheelbase 62-65 Mopar with a chrome plated k-frame for all to see. Sounds like chrome plating and highly stressed parts don't go together.........

Last edited by Neil; 08/30/17 04:59 PM.
Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2362587
08/30/17 11:02 PM
08/30/17 11:02 PM
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Paul's Chrome just got back to me and each rim will run $350 to $400 to get rechromed.

Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2362596
08/30/17 11:22 PM
08/30/17 11:22 PM
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Originally Posted By Speeddemon
Paul's Chrome just got back to me and each rim will run $350 to $400 to get rechromed.


They did my 65 Fury tail light bezels. Very expensive and I was not impressed with the results.


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Re: Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest [Re: Speeddemon] #2362655
08/31/17 12:54 AM
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Originally Posted By Speeddemon
Paul's Chrome just got back to me and each rim will run $350 to $400 to get rechromed.
Thanks for that info Speeddemon. Thats a little to rich for my blood. $700 to $800 for 2 rims, I can buy a whole set of new Cragar S/S's for that amount.

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