Letter 22041

Need a place to chrome my wheels [North Carolina] 

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I am in Asheville NC and have a set of 20 inch wheels I need dipped. I what them to be chrome. I need to know where I can get this done locally or at least close by, and I need a price. Please use the given email address to reply. This is not a re-chroming. The wheel have nothing on them. Thank you for your time. And If at all possible I would like to know more about the process.

Jesse Lamar Maybin
- Asheville, North Carolina, USA

Interested shops will contact you directly, Mr. Maybin. As for what is involved, it is a multi-step process. First the wheels are buffed and cleaned; then they must be zincated, copper plated or electroless nickel plated, then electrolytic semi-bright nickel plated, bright nickel plated, and finally chrome plated. Additional buffing steps may be required after chrome plating, or mid-process.

Having an item plated after it is in the consumer's hands rather than at the time of manufacturing is quite expensive due to the cost of labor. While a single operator at a wheel factory may be able to hang 12 wheels at a time on a rack designed for that particular model and run them through a very standard sequence, plating individual wheels of various sizes and shapes takes a lot more time, and when s/he's done the labor is only divided across two or four wheels instead of twelve. Also there are invariably cosmetic flaws from road use that have to be individually dealt with whereas at a factory they would just throw an imperfect wheel back into the melt furnace.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
finishing.com Inc. - Brick, NJ

My company is a supporting advertiser at finishing.com and we want the contact information to reach the inquirer privately.

 

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