Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

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94firehawk343
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Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by 94firehawk343 » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:02 am

I was talking to a fellow 94 hawk owner about selling him a couple of my extra rims. He tried to have his chromed and the company told him they could not do it and sent his rims back. Lost his centercaps in the process and they are lucky they went out of business because he is a lawyer and they were going to be soooo sued.

So my question, they told him the chrome plating would not adhere because his rims were "pitted". That did not make sense to me. I know a little about materials and plating since I am a mechanical engineer and I had no problem getting my rims refinished silver/clear. It makes no sense to me that the aluminum would be "pitted". Even thousands of hours salt spray I am thinking the aluminum would not be "pitted" and even if it was corroded a bit, if they were properly prepared the chrome plating should hold and probably even cover some minor surface defects? Wondering if there is an expert that could tell us for sure? I am thinking maybe they tried to chrome plate without removing silver/clear back to base metal? That is the only thing I could brainstorm up that made even a lick of sense to me. Any other ideas as to what could possibly be going on. I would appreciate it just because I am completely stumped, it makes no sense at all to me and it is keeping me up at night wondering if the ventilation at the plating shop wasn't adequate and these guys were just out of their minds :wink: ?
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Scott Chab
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Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by Scott Chab » Mon Jun 06, 2011 8:46 am

I can't imagine a chrome shop worth a nickle would try to chrome something without stripping it first... but then again maybe that is why they are out of business.

There is a chance they just didn't want to do them too.
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94firehawk343
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2002 10:57 am
Location: Edmond, Oklahoma

Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by 94firehawk343 » Mon Jun 06, 2011 12:24 pm

I have never seen any flaws in the aluminum from corrosion at all! Obviously they can be scratched, the curb rash I have seen. The gentleman does live in Orlando, so maybe he is parking at the beach with some salt spray from the ocean on the rims? Has anyone ever seen any damage to the aluminum that wasn't caused by scratching? He described it as "pitting".
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lakeratiam
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Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by lakeratiam » Mon Jun 06, 2011 4:18 pm

Living in the mid west where sand and salt are put on the roads routinely during the winter I have never seen any of my aluminum wheels ( even my un-coated Centerline wheels) pit from salt corrosion. I have seen them peppered with lots of "mini" rock dents from the coarse sand that the road Dept. uses. Kind of like lightly sand blasted. Isn't that why there are aluminum caps on salt shakers? Because salt (aka sodium chloride) won't react with aluminum?
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94firehawk343
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Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by 94firehawk343 » Mon Jun 06, 2011 6:12 pm

I'm glad you guys seem to be a little skeptical as I was. Either the finishers were incompetent or as Scott suggested they were just making up a story because they didn't want to plate them. Maybe they wanted to steal the centercaps instead, since they went ahead and sent the rims back minus centercaps?

The guy doesn't have any reason to lie to me about what happened with the plating shop or I would be a little skeptical of the whole story to begin with. So I guess it will be a mystery unless I am in Orlando sometime and he will let me drop by and look at them. I suspect the rims are probably fine unless the shop messed them up and made up story to cover their tracks.
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1badchicken
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Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by 1badchicken » Tue Jun 07, 2011 11:58 am

Why not professionally have them polished out. Like my brother did on his set
Image

94firehawk343
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Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by 94firehawk343 » Tue Jun 07, 2011 2:25 pm

I like it! I went ahead and kept the silver on the spokes for mine. I like the polish all over though, that way if the sun reflects off the spokes just right when you're passing that mustang - hopefully it will temporarily blind them and by the time they can see again you are nowhere in sight!

I will suggest that to the fellow from Orlando and show him this thread, I hate for him to think his rims are "pitted" and ruined when it looks like someone just scamed him somehow. Bad enough they "lost" his centercaps.
94 Firehawk A4 #343 - Metallic Green 1/500
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lakeratiam
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Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by lakeratiam » Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:40 pm

Talked to a customer of mine today that owns a chrome shop. He doesn't do "appearance" chrome work, he plates bearings for Rail Road car wheels. He said if the wheels were mildly to badly pitted from any means at all, the shop probably pre-qualified your acquaintance as not having enough money to make them look good. He said it takes a lot of filling with copper or nickel and a lot of polishing to correct it and/or they probably just didn't want to mess with them. Kind of what Scott said........................
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94firehawk343
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Joined: Tue Apr 02, 2002 10:57 am
Location: Edmond, Oklahoma

Re: Q for expert about problems chrome plating 1994 hawk rim

Post by 94firehawk343 » Fri Jun 10, 2011 8:50 am

Lakeratium,

I showed this post to the owner of the wheels who I posted the question for. I am thinking you hit the nail on the head with your buddy from the chrome shop because the wheels were already stripped when they were returned. He advises the car was parked outside for quite a while in a marine environment (ouch). He also said the chrome shop told him some of these rims were prone to this "pitting" problem. I am assuming he meant aluminum rims in general not 93/94 Firehawk rims specifically.

As far as aluminum being impervious to salt corrosion, probably true until you get it wet. For testimony on the destructive power of water reference the Grand Canyon. I engineered missles and infrared targeting systems for a defense contractor and the most common military specification for corrosion testing was constant exposure to salt water spray for a specified number of hours - essentially an accelerated weathering. All our external aluminum parts were hard anodized and they did not corrode after thousands of testing hours. I am not sure if the hard anodize was for corrosion protection, camouflage or both. If know if I was a soldier I certainly wouldn't want a bright shiny piece of aluminum saying "look at me, I am right over here"!!!
94 Firehawk A4 #343 - Metallic Green 1/500
2ODL Cat Back Exhaust - Bilstein Suspension
94 Impala SS Black 1/6303
90 Grand Prix STE Intercooled Turbo White 1/1000
Mods - All Bone Stock (Well OK K&N Air Filter :wink: )

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