I have seen some pix of a CE with the stock rims chrome plated. I would like to get a bit more info on doing this. I talked to a local shop & they seemed to think it was a bad idea on aluminium ?? Something about the rims pitting under the tire bead & leaking after a few years.
If someone has any info on this could they please contact me by e-mail or post the info here.
I am located in Canada but the rims I am buying are currently in the US so if I have to send them to a plating shop first to have them done correctly then that wouldn't be a problem.

I am the guy who chromed my rims. It's now been several years and I have never had to add any air and my chrome has zero problems with peeling or whatever. I used www.wheelconcepts.com and paid 95.00 for each wheel to be chromed plus shipping both ways.
They stripped, copper plated, nickel plated, then triple chrome plated and they absolutely looked like new. I even found one NOS wheel on ebay that had been in a box for 20years and turned yellow and sent it off with the 3 with 120K miles on them and when I got them back, I couldn't tell which one had never been mounted.
Now back to the interior peeling. My wife has a 2004 Nissan Altima with factory chromed Steel wheels, and they DID start peeling inside and I had to removed the wheels, buff out the peeling chrome, and then epoxy paint inside and then have remounted to stop the leaking. But that hasn't happed with my chromed alum wheels.

Man...those look absolutely awesome
Did you get them to do the center caps too? I called & they quoted me $550 for the set of 4 plus $45 more each for "show" chrome, meaning they do the backs etc. & I forget what they wanted to do the caps.

They went up in price since they did mine. What you see in these pictures was 95.00 per wheel chromed all the way around. I bought new repro center caps on ebay and then sold my old ones for almost as much as the new ones.
When I bought the epoxy paint for the wheels, I took the new caps in and had them color match the paint to the grey in the caps so they would all match perfectly.
Steve

1MORTOY,
I couldn't respond to your email you sent me. So here's my
response.
Steve




Definately buy new caps. I don't think the old ones can be refinished.
It's very hard to chrome plastic.
I'd buy 5 new caps for 80-90bucks apiece(make the guys on ebay an offer
and they will take it) and then sell your old OE caps for 75bucks apiece.
You'll be glad for the trade.
Steve

P.S. make sure your chromer does lots of buffing after the copper plating.
That will smooth out all your scratches, pits, ect before the chroming begins.
Steve

Well, the 4 CE wheels I bought from Dino at Corvette salvage made it safely to Calif. I can't thank Dino & George enough for all their help in getting things coordinated.
Phil at Wheelconcepts checked & spun up all 4 wheels. He found that 2 had about a 14 thou runout, but they have the eqiupment to actually straighten them rather than just turning them.
The other 2 are good & all 4 are in otherwise excellent condition with just a hint of curb rash on one. They are going to concentrate on the fins & rim edges to give them a super smooth finish since I am painting the rest of the wheel.
They figure they should be able to get them all done by the end of next week.
Considering that all I saw were some digital pix of the wheels & talked on the phone with the people concerned, this is going rather well so far. (Fingers are crossed)

1MORTOY,

Keep us posted on how your rims and caps turn out. Don't forget to post some pictures too.

We'll keep our fingers crossed also.

_________________
C3VR Lifetime Member # 51
NCM Lifetime Member #1353
Iron82

Will do but I am only doing the rims. Phil at Wheelconcepts suggested that I not do the caps because the process is just not good enough to stand up to road use. I can use my OEM ones anyway or just buy a set of repro's.

Just so you know, the repo's that are for sale from Ecklers and others are not exactly repo's... Someone found the original dies that GM used to make the hubcaps. So if you buy a set, there is no difference between the new ones and your original ones....

That's interesting... I'm glad they found them. Happy they make them again. I see a lot of people looking for them in the past and one knew what GM was doing about making anymore.

I bought an extra pair (4) for my extra rims just incase. 'You never know'. The caps were in good condition from ebay. Not a bad price a year ago for all 4 ($120usd).

_________________
C3VR Lifetime Member # 51
NCM Lifetime Member #1353
Iron82

Jeez, best price I can find is $92 EACH & I still have to convert to CDN & get them here.

They are done & home in my garage... Whooo Hoo.



The rims started their voyage in Mississippi at Dino's Corvette salvage.
http://www.corvettesalvage.com/index.html
Travelled all the way to Cailfornia to Wheel Concepts for chrome plating.
http://www.wheelconcepts.com/
Then north to their new home in Alberta.



Man... I am really impressed with the quality of the plating & the service from both shops too.

All I can say is WoW!!!!

Just like when Steve had his done, they are beautiful...

_________________
Arizona Corvette Enthusiasts
Gone, but not forgotten

NO JOKE!!!

Are you sure there not Steves.

Very Nice rims. Great job by both shops as well.

_________________
C3VR Lifetime Member # 51
NCM Lifetime Member #1353
Iron82

Ok, it's taken me a few years to get to this point but the rims are FINALLY masked & glasss bead blasted.
I even went & bought a 5th rim then had it chromed too, just in case I whack one up.
They go to the paint shop tomorrow.
The new tires are waiting in the garage to be mounted as soon as the paint dries.