Hi,

A mate of mine is trying to renovate an old set of alloys that have previously been chromed. The old chrome is in a bad way and he wants to have it all removed so that he can have the wheels either re-chromed or powder coated.

He sent them to a company in Birmingham who said they could do it but they sent them back saying that they didn't realise they were alloys. They said that if they tried to remove the old chrome they would probably knacker the alloy as well.

Does anybody know of anywhere that would be able to remove the old chrome?

My mate is in the Oxford area but is prepared to travel a bit or possibly have them couriered there and back.

TIA,

Mart.

Martin

How is he planning to finish them once the chrome is removed?

If he was powder coating (like mine on the MK) then he could get them blasted with a reasonably fine medium and any irregularities should be "smoothed" by the powder coating.

Also found this:

"The chrome is removable relatively quickly (but not without hazard) with muriatic acid. But, such wheels are actually nickel plated and then chrome plated, and most of what you are looking at is actually nickel.

It may be possible to sandblast them, but sandblasting is not good for aluminum and you'll never get it smooth again. Chemically stripping the nickel requires special chemicals that aren't easily available to or usable by consumers.

I think your best bet is to take the wheels to a plating shop or powder coating shop for stripping the nickel and applying a chromate conversion coating before painting or powder coating."

Here {click}

HTH

Martin

Hi Martin,

Thanks for the info.

He wants to powder coat them anyway so blasting sounds like the way to go.

Hope to see you at a Tuesday meet soon!

Mart.