Bushwack Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Are the wheels below chrome or polish?..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NCReatta Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I'm betting polished. Chroming aluminum is difficult and it doesn't stay like you would expect it to. BuickReattaParts.com had some problems with their chrome wheels peeling. Despite what their website says, I believe they've gone completely to selling just polished wheels. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steveskyhawk Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Impossible to say from picture. I'm curious why they didn't bring up center caps to match. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Recian Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 i vote polished due to a post ive seen here in the past. According to a chrome shop in town they can chrome steels not aluminum. Chroming involves magnetism to make the plating stick and aluminum has no magnetic properties. The center caps probably dont match because theyre very difficult to refinish to start with much less polish beyond factory cleanliness to make them shine like chrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mongeonman Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I say polished cause i did it on my car,did the rear bumper too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handmedownreatta Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 i vote polished due to a post ive seen here in the past. According to a chrome shop in town they can chrome steels not aluminum. Chroming involves magnetism to make the plating stick and aluminum has no magnetic properties. The center caps probably dont match because theyre very difficult to refinish to start with much less polish beyond factory cleanliness to make them shine like chrome.my camaro came to me with the aluminum wheels chromed.i had to go with aftermarket wheels because the tires would go flat without any warning.i think the chrome to tire surfaces let air ecape. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest steveskyhawk Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 I dont know what magnatism has to do with plating but this is chrome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDirk Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 Aluminum rims can be chromed, MANY factory GM rims come (or at least used to come) that way. The hot style now is polished, rather than chromed aluminum so you see more of the former than the latter on newer cars it seems. The stock rims on my Deville are aluminum, with chrome plate. So are the LeSabre style 16" rims I have on both Reattae. What I find interesting is how specialized the process is. There are a couple of plating outfits in California who offer it, and I think one in Georgia that I found a while back. The vast majority of plating shops do not. The thing that concerns me is that it seems to be a job heavily reliant on quality control/proper application. I have seen factory rims on a Ford SUV recently where the chrome had peeled off in sheets, almost like their infamous mid 1980's paint jobs used to do on the hood, roof and trunk (yes, GM had this too). All that was left was dull grey aluminum, with a few patches of chrome. Clearly, these were not done right as the car was only 2-3 years old and I cannot think of any type of abuse that would remove that much chrome without evidence of mechanical damage - gouging, scraping, etc. I should point out the aluminum was undamaged/non-pitted, so it was not chemical damage either.I would like to get my Deville rims re-chromed (an even more specialized process apparently) as NOS are not to be found, and if they were would be outrageously expensive. I have been putting it off due both to cost and reservations about how well they will turn out. I don't want the re-chroming to start peeling off in a year or two. Problem is, the places that do this are very cautionary in describing the success of the process and it's long term durability. Makes me worry it may not be worth doing. The biggest problem with chrome on aluminum is corrosion. Once moisture breaches the chrome layer and starts attacking the aluminum underneath, big nasty rough spots can form (usually on the bead seating lip where the tire meets the rim) and cause slow leak-downs of the tire, or in extreme cases spontaneous loss of inflation due to a bad bead seal. These have to be ground/machined off and sealed to make the rims reliable (i.e. leak-free) again. If they are in a place that is not visible, no big deal. Otherwise, the wheels need to be re-chromed. KDirk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted January 12, 2012 Share Posted January 12, 2012 The old racer trick was to paint the rim wth a latex paint before mounting/balancing the wheel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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