With all the talk about powdercoating I thought I would share my experience with Chrome Plating of DeLorean rims. My first attempt was with polish and paint only. This looked really great but was a hassle. These wheels are on my daily driver and polishing them is the one job I hate. The polish gets onto the black paint that is between the spokes. By the way, the polished parts are the outer bead, the radial spokes and the inner hub area. I paint the little section in the middle of the spoke. There is some porosity in the castings and it varies by vintage. These rims cost me ~$600.00 to polish and paint and they said they went thru a fortune in buffing wheels. I guess all the spoke edges cut the buffing wheels to shreds. My next three experiences were with CICC Company in Pomona, Calif. (909 595-0144). The first try several years ago showed some of the same porosity thru the chrome. I felt this was unavoidable and otherwise the quality was quite decent. After all NO MORE POLISHING. Recently I had the other two sets done and they are fabulous! I can not believe the over all quality. The paint is flawless and the buffing precise. At the risk of being wordy the quality of the buffing work was the best I have ever seen. The only real stress the plating has taken was the tire mounting but I see no pealing or flaking. This was not true of some rims I recently had Victoria Wheel do at their chrome shop. All this comes with a price but I (obviously) thought it was worth it: The DeLorean looks GREAT with the chromes. Looking at one of my unchromed cars by comparison was motivation to get them "finished ASAP". Anyway a set of four including Calif. tax and shipping back to No. Calif. was $489.00. The only odd thing was they insisted on a cashiers check of money order before starting the work. I have just ordered a new digital camera so may be able to post pictures soon. Don, #1325 etc. By the way I put aftermarket rims on my fifth car just to get the rim diameter to current tastes. They also look great but I feel like a bit of a traitor. With the chromes I do not have this problem. ----- Original Message ----- From: <deloreanernst@xxxx> To: <dmcnews@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, October 02, 2000 8:38 AM Subject: [DML] Re: Powder coated wheels "Gassing Out" > In a message dated 10/1/00 9:43:35 AM Eastern Daylight Time, > billschaferabn@xxxx writes: > > << the owner mentioned he thought the wheels were "Gassing Out". Being new > to powder coating I played it cool and decided to listen instead of guessing > what that meant. He explained to me that my alloy wheels must have taken on > some impurities during the time the paint had peeled off the wheels. This > then required the wheels be baked at least 6 hours to insure the impurities > (now a gas product) could be cooked off. As it turned out they cooked them > for about 16 hours and the wheels still had a very small amount of "Gassing > out". But I can live with the 98% perfect job. >> > I had the same experience. Only one wheel was a noticable problem. Standing > up and looking at them, they look great. Get down on your knees and you see > some "orange peel" but let's face it, the original wheels aren't mirror > smooth to begin with. I'm still delighted with the way they look, and I > think the powder coat will stick on and last much longer than the original. > My wheels had some minor flaking, with just a little whitish oxidation. > Inside they were like new, once the NCTs were off. Even the valve stems. I > matched the original gray, and I'm glad I did since I now think chrome would > look worse on a less-than-mirror smooth finish. > > -Wayne > vin 11174 > The New DeLorean Manuals Project > > > > Before posting messages or replies, see the posting policy rules at: > www.dmcnews.com/Admin/rules.html > > To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: > moderator@xxxx > >