Rechroming Rims - Suggestions of Companies in the Midwest

Recently picked up some Chrome Slot rims that need to be rechromed/replated. I live in Iowa and looking for a company here in the midwest. (No companies in Iowa that will do the replating) Any suggestions on companies? Looking for something fairly close to where I live. (St. Louis, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis etc......)

I'm in the St.Louis Mo area.

I couldn't find anyone in the Midwest that would plate wheels last year.

It required shipping them to California.

Maybe you'll have better luck.

Tri Cities did a nice job on a bumper for me a few years ago. Tennessee.




http://www.tricityplating.com/

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.

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?

I tried several years, more like decades, ago.
Anyway I lived in Milwaukee at the time.
You know the place known as the "Machine Shop of the world", back in its hey day.
Lots of chrome shops. No one would touch it.
I resorted to sand blasting and black paint, so I could use the rims.
Hopefully you will have better luck these days.

So the question that comes to mind then is who chromes all of today's chrome mag wheels, such as Cragar, Rockets and American Racing? Is it all done in China?

Not necessarily, just done by shops that specialize in wheels.
Most likely owned by the manufacturer.
Come to think of it though, yeah, most like done off shore.
No EPA to worry about.
Why do folks always bash China. It's not like things weren't made in China in the 40's and 50's let alone beyond that.
I'm not saying China made is great, but it isn't new either.
I remember quality control being an issue back when our cars were new.
Just think of the kind of folks that were doing that kind of work back then. Lots of druggies and alcoholics. Not a really a fun job to have. Couldn't get fired. Why do it right?

try trans wheel http://www.transwheel.com/ one of the largest rim repairers in the us.


maybe try weldcraft wheels http://www.weldcraftwheels.com/ they have widened a few sets of wheels for me. they also advertise alloy wheel repair.

Another option is powder coating...
There are many, many colors, also there is a chrome color just not as shiney as the real chrome..

Just my $0.02...

Not bashing China. Just don't want to send wheels halfway around the world to have them chromed. May never see them again.

Tried to get some old Cragars rechromed recently. The guy that runs the local chrome shop said that he won't touch wheels. Said something about not wanting to deal with a liability issue.

elmor. What if they were just plan jane stock steel wheels? Would they chrome those?

Anyone know of a chroming place in the USA that will chrome steel wheels?

Last I checked Tricity did wheels. Just a little spendy. The Hydrogen embrittlement concern is or should be addressed by baking the wheels after plating... from memory, this needs hot home oven type temps (?? 400-500 deg) for an hour or two.

I know that is the process for bolts? with other platings, but chrome is three? platings, and not sure if hydrogen is easily/properly? baked out of chrome. Regardless, embrittlement issues are usually with the harder steel alloys, and most wheels we are talking about are not, I suspect.

There is a chrome shop in Western Iowa, South Sioux City Nebraska. Sioux Plating Company. Not sure if they do wheels or not. I had them do some bumpers for me and they did pretty good work.

Did you try any of these places?

https://www.siouxplating.com/

http://www.paulschrome.com/

http://aihchrome.com/home/1753387

http://www.thechromeshop.com/

There is an SAE standard for baking chrome plated steel, AMS2759-9E. Your vendors are probably too stupid to understand what this does. If they follow the directions if your wheel rips apart they have a defense, we did it according to the standard.

There was a chroming place in Minnesota that had a good reputation. I can't remember their name.

There is a real problem with chromium, namely hexavalent chromium, which has high health risks. We have guys welding stainless steel pipe in our shop and we have to have special hoods for the work or a combination of air line respirators and building ventilation to keep them safe. That's what the Julia Roberts movie Erin Brockovich was all about. Well, that and Julia Roberts' front end.

What this means to me is that we are going to see less and less chroming here in the States.

R.

This does not cover most steel wheels, IMO.

SAE AMS 2759/9

"This specification covers the requirements for embrittlement relief (baking) of heat treated steel parts to remove hydrogen infused during plating and certain other chemical processing such as stripping, chemical milling, pickling, and etching. This specification is applicable to parts made from carbon, low-alloy, and martensitic stainless steel heat treated to a minimum strength of 180 ksi (1241 MPa) or heat treated to a minimum hardness of 40 HRC or equivalent. It is also applicable to threaded fasteners made from carbon, low-alloy, or martensitic stainless steels heat treated to a minimum strength of 150 ksi (1034 MPa) or 34 HRC or equivalent, parts made from high strength precipitation hardening stainless steels other than A-286, and steel parts which have been case hardened (carburized, nitrided, nitrocarburized, or carbonitrided). See 8.2.

AIH in Dubuque won't do them?

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.

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......

Thank you for the info.

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.

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.

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

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.

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?

Robert

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

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.

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.

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

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.........

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.

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.