original wheel finish- federal cars

[Lotus54]

Hi recently got the stock wheels for my 'new' Elan.
They are a chrome finish. Looks nice, but some is peeling.

What is the original finish on these wheels?

Any suggestions for refinishing in the States? (preferably west coast or North West.

Mark

[Brit-Car-Nut]

To my knowledge, the stock finish is Acrylic Urethane with Clear Coat. I had a set redone with PowderCoat and ClearCoat. They were able to match the color to my original wheels.

The Chrome wheels might be from one of the Disney "Honey I Blew Up The Kid" movie cars as they had all of the wheels chromed for that movie.

I got 3 of the wheels from Knox Motorsport in Va. They were bent but I was able to salvage 2 of them.

To get them powdercoated, I had to have the chrome removed. The OZ casting had been "polished" during the chroming process, so the relief is a little bit less than normal, but they look really nice - even next to the original low mileage set on my NMY.

[Lotus54]

Any tips for removing chrome?

They look nice, but the quote I got so far to rechrome was $250 per wheel!

I can repaint once the chrome is off, or polish or...

Open to any ideas.

The car has 17" wheels on it now, I like how it drives better with the stock 16" ones.
For auto crossing or something the others may be better.

Mark

[Brit-Car-Nut]

I had the same problem: All of the chrome shops wanted a fortune to de-chrome the three wheels. The company I was using to powdercoat the wishbones and other parts had a relationship with another shop who did the de-chroming for around $25.00 each. They were expecting me to let them do the powdercoating but they didn't want to add the clear coat, so I went to a wheel refinisher instead.

You might want to talk to someone that does other types of metal finishing and maybe they have a similar connection that will help.

Remember, they will have less detail after de-chroming in the OZ logo area. Also, after removing the chrome, there was a lot of copper left behind, so polishing is probably not an option.

[Lotus54]

Nobody would do anything but rechrome, at least nobody I could find.

I sent them off to an outfit in California, I just got them back. They look really good!

I didnt really want to rechrome, but they came out great.

I'll post a picture when I have them on the car.

Mark

[Lotus54]

Oh yeah, the wheels had 'Global Performance' written on the inside before I had them done.
Mean anything. To anyone?
Wheels came from California ( where the car originally came from)