A buddy has a set of small bolt pattern keystone classics that he wants to use on his Dart. Problem is the chrome is shot. So he is thinking of having them powdercoated instead.

Is it possible to practically rechrome a wheel? Would it last? Would it be cost prohibitive? Thx!

I never could find anyone to do it. Fear of hydrogen embrittlement and lawyers. Powdercoat is probably the best option.

Might be hard to get the chrome down in the seams? I think the wheel parts are chromed separately and then welded together?

Prismatic Powders has a superchrome 2 that is pretty shiny. It's more polished aluminum than chrome. They'll mail you color samples.

If money is no object you could have the wheels cut apart and rechrome each part and then have them welded back together.

If you can find someone to strip the chrome and polish then triple plate them correctly the cost will outweigh the prices of the new ones by 2 or3 times. They would be way better than the crappy new ones. But chances are they might also do a crap job as well and still have the same outlay. Ask around before handing them over

Beware the "chrome-like" powdercoating.
Had a set of wheels done and the stuff would discolor darker if you rubbed it.
The guy has a good rep & all seemed proper, and he even shot a clear over the "chrome".
Even with colors, I've had better luck with paint than powdercoating on wheels...

Yes but you have to cut the welds to separate the center from the rim then reweld them together

My uncle had his '67 GTX Magnum 500s rechromed, and they looked awesome. Price? His dad did them for free, so who knows. I'm sure it'll never cost less than a set of new wheels.

I think part of the high cost of chrome is the massive amount of labor in preparation.
When Steel is ready to start plating, it looks like it has been chromed already. I saw a part at a chrome shop and thought it was done, but it had only been polished. It was ready to go so the steel looked like chrome. The guy told me it has to be perfect because what ever blemishes there are, they will remain and stand out.

So to polish to that extreme would be very difficult to prepare, more time, more cost.

I had the same issue as 3hundred. None of the chrome shops near me would touch a wheel.

I agree. I went through this when I looked into re-chroming some Lil Red Truck wheels, which are two piece steel. I was told by two different chroming shops that the problem is that the chemicals and methods used to remove the original chrome will attack and destroy (or weaken) the welds.
Never looked into the details, but there is a whole engineering field of study of weld corrosion and weakening, so I trusted to the experts.
Fortunately, patina is now cool. That makes my Lil Red Truck extremely cool.

Robert

if i remember correctly, [i am old, so i suffer from CRS ] those keystone wheels are like the cragar SS wheels, a steel hoop and an aluminum center.
if you can get them apart without breaking or loosening the weldable steel inserts that are imbedded into the cast center, you will still have two different materials that will need polishing before replating.
super labor intensive to get done correctly, if at all.
paint or replacement wheels are your only realistic options.
i'm guessing these are 14" wheels, so reproductions are most likely going to be few and far between.

Yes, the steel insert cast into the aluminum center is welded to the steel rim.

Lot of different views here.
On the actual rechroming, the problem is mostly with the shape of the particular wheel, in that the electrical chroming process has great difficulties getting equal deposits on a inside curves vs other more exposed surfaces, you might notice this on say how chrome bumpers or wheels often first start to rust on the inside curves. The OEM's reduce this problem by having cusom configured electrodes to get better equal displacement of the electrically charged plating metals. local plater can't be bothered, not that i blame them, as I suppose there is some experimentation to get the process correct.

Hydrogen embrittlement issue with chrome, is you can't bake out the hydrogen thru the chrome post plating, mainly. I don't believe its on typical steel wheels a great concern in the first place however.

Rewelding an already welded steel weld tab that is embedded/cast into the alum wheel, and then is cut, and then chemically deplated, then replated, and then rewelded has got to be a real potential can of worms, beyond my pay grade..

I just had one set of my 71 vintage, direct bolt, 15x4 skinny s/s Cragars re chromed. They were way toast.

Is that a crack in the weld?

No, look closer.

It wasn't fully cast. The weld is in great shape