Powder Coating, Nickle Plating

[Bradley G]

For metal, plastic, vinyl, coatings; wheels ,engine, suspension, You name it!.
I made a contact with a industrial coatings guy, who loves anything with a motor!:P
You can probably imagine we hit it off pretty well!

He will do nearly any type of coatings, to gussy up your ride.
I am especially interested to see how he does with the Nickle coatings on our OEM rims.
PM me if you have interest

[CobraSVT657]

I'll wait for pics of their work :beatnik:

[MM03MOK]

While it's good in theory, and the reflected shine is beautiful, my nickel-plated rims have peeled in places like a good sunburn. After talking to a metalurgist at a well-respected chrome plating facility, I wouldn't do it again.

[SC Cheesehead]

While it's good in theory, and the reflected shine is beautiful, my nickel-plated rims have peeled in places like a good sunburn. After talking to a metalurgist at a well-respected chrome plating facility, I wouldn't do it again.


+1 Nickel plating is very shiny, but not particulary durable.

IMO, if you want show quality appearance that will last, you're looking at a 4 step plating process:

#1: Foundation of copper plate (ideally buffed after electroplating to enhance the brillance of subesquent plating).
#2: First application of nickel plate (to fill in or "level" surface irregularitles and provide durability).
#3: Second application of nickel plate (provides the shine and enhances corrosion resistance).
#4: Chrome top plate. The nickel makes the shine, but the chrome keeps it that way (resistance to tarnish, scratching and additional corrosion resistance).

Needless to say, quality chrome plating ain't cheap.

[ImpalaSlayer]

Chrome mm wheels look 1000x better then the crappy factory polish and powdercoat. Mine never peeled except a little where the po brushed a curb

[musclemerc]

+1 Our wheels look amazing in chrome. There is a place in Cali that plates for $125.00 per wheel.

[SC Cheesehead]

+1 Our wheels look amazing in chrome. There is a place in Cali that plates for $125.00 per wheel.

Do you have contact info for them?

[musclemerc]

^^PM DTUB they did his widened wheels.

I found his old post. http://www.mercurymarauder.net/forums/showthread.php?t=61458

See post #13

[Bradley G]

The nickle process he described to me was several stages of dipping like SC cheesehead mentioned.
He showed me a few samples it appears he knows how thses coatings will perform in the elements.

[ImpalaSlayer]

The nickle process he described to me was several stages of dipping like SC cheesehead mentioned.
He showed me a few samples it appears he knows how thses coatings will perform in the elements.

with chrome wheels you would actually want a winter set, people who have stock wheels and swap them out are wasting there tiime unless the other wheels have better tires

[SC Cheesehead]

The nickle process he described to me was several stages of dipping like SC cheesehead mentioned.
He showed me a few samples it appears he knows how thses coatings will perform in the elements.

Yeah, the multiple dippings are an absolute necessity if you want the plating to maintain a high quality appearance.

A good quality plating shop is worth it's weight in gold (oops, sorry for the pun)...:o

[Bradley G]

We decieded to powder coat the Lacy Spoke wheels from the GMQ.
The coating will be a texture silver and we may have a Two tone theme by the way it looks.
I'll try and post up a pic when I get the sample back.
He wants to do one wheel to see if I want them all to look that way.

[Bradley G]

Got the example back last night, I like the look!
adds depth and dimension to the classic lacy spoke!
The three remaining should be done next week, the stripper will be replenished with fresh chemical .

[tbone]

I want to chrome my spare wheel.