Topic: 69 Mach 1 Styled Steel Wheel Restoration Questions

[Bob Gaines]

Would you consider simply getting the entire wheel chromed? Once complete, figure out how to get the paint to adhere to the outer chromed surfaces? It seems to me that it would be easier to figure out how to "roughen-up" the outer portions of the wheel than it would be to safely re-assemble the halves.

I have seen examples of when you chrome the entire wheel and center before being done on other welded rim to center wheels (66 GT350 Hertz wheels). The result is typically a different level of shine on the rim portion and the center portion where the two meet. The reason is that the chrome plater can not get to the small area where the two surfaces meet and prepare the surface in the same way as the rest of the wheel.  This appearance of the chrome between the small area around where the two surfaces meet is substantially different and consequently highly visible in not a good way.

[JohnSlack]

Way too much risk involved with plating the whole wheel including the rivets, hydrogen embrittlement is a real concern.


Link to articles;

https://www.finishing.com/17/47.shtml

[STAUBY38]

What Bob's last post says is also what I was told.  They cannot get down between the two parts thus making a less then high quality plating job.  Ideally they need to be separated.  The key is putting them back together.  I am researching options.  Many people I know want OEM wheels not repos and I get it.  I'm kinda the same way... I have a set of both and I would rather restore the Ford Wheels. 

[Bob Gaines]

This is not a new story. This problem has been around for at least a decade now. Many have asked about and researched this subject. You are not the first.  My experience has had to do with the riveted and the welded centers given the Shelby wheels that are my field of interest. The riveted situation has been a problem for about 15 years when some of the last specialty shops that did that closed up and sold all of their special equipment. The welded center has been a problem for 10 years or less in this case it was a matter of the shops simply refusing to do them. About three years ago I heard tell about a guy who got some Hertz Shelby magnums(welded center) that found someone in CA to weld them together but when another enthusiast got the contact info shortly after his wheels were completed found out that the company wouldn't do them anymore. I suppose you may still find someone to do it if you search hard and long enough. If you can get them separated and chromed maybe check some of these wheel repair shops that are franchised all over the US now to see if they are set up to do the welding. The problem which maybe or maybe not a problem that I wonder about is press fitting them in place straight and square after the chroming has added thickness to the surface of the rim .