Ken Seggie
From:
[email protected]
To:
Guy Richards
Thu, Jan 18 at 12:23 a.m.
ello All.
I have been restoring wheels, for the past couple of years during the winter. 2nd Gen Camaros & Chevelles are popular and sell fast. I wanted wheels for my 65 Dodge and decided on Cragar SS.
I went looking for a rough set to practice on and bought 2 Cragar GTs. They are just Cragar SS wheels that are painted grey. I found 2 for $120 with 2 with good Pirellis. It was such a great deal, I gave the guy what he was asking. I couldn't wait to get home to see if there was chrome under the paint. There was, so I stripped them down with paint remover and a razor blade. Underneath the wheels were nice except that the chrome had blotchy areas everywhere.
First I tried some chrome wrap Vinyl. The stuff is amazing but, it is not easy to use on objects that have more than 1 angle. I practiced for a couple of hours with the wrap. Things like the spokes were easy but the rim with 3 steps was tough. I made templates for the whole wheel as I have 20 wheels to do.
My next attempt was chrome spray paint. New brands of chrome paint are coming out every day. I tried over 10 brands. A few looked OK but nothing had that mirror chrome look. I had heard that Revell had a good one. You must remember Revell from the old days as they made model car kits. At $60 a can, it should be good. It's a small can and it will only do 2 wheels. The can is less than, half the size of a regular can. (150 Ml )Prepping the wheel is where all the time goes. Any areas where the wheel is pitted have to be sanded smooth and any area that has peeling chrome needs to be sanded.
Once done properly the wheel looks amazing. As new. I don't know if chrome paint will get any better as it's almost perfect now. I'm having trouble getting pics up. I have lost a lot of my computer skills. Very frustrating.