I just acquired some used chrome smoothie wheels. There's some rust around the rim (in the gully where the valve stem is). I was wondering if I could touch it up with chrome paint? I've seen this stuff in spray cans but have never used it. I thought if I lightly sanded the area to make it smooth and then sprayed some paint on a pallete I could use a small brush to paint the area. Will it blend pretty good?
IMO, chrome paint sucks, I have never seen good results from it and it, at best, would be a metalic silver that will fade very easily. If the wheels aren't too badly rusted, clean them with a Brillo pad. If they are pretty rusty, find a good chrome shop. I use Advanced Custom Chrome in Erie, PA. Good luck with it.
It will look better than rust but not as good as chrome. Or in other words, you'll be able to tell but it will still look better. If it isn't too bad you might be able to polish most of it out of there.
This bring back memories of me painting the steel rear bumper on my '82 F100 with chrome spray paint... oh the lessons learned as a 15 year old... It'll fade to battleship gray in a month or two. If you want a quick fix... go for it. I wouldn't go prepping it for hours and making the steel perfect for it though. Chrome paint just doesn't last. It might look alright if you're just touching up a couple pits... just don't spray the whole rim. You'll probably regret it. Good luck.
not as good as chrome, but hot coat has an almost chrome powdercoat system now, i can't remember if it's one or two parts. eastwood has the powder.
Take your hubcaps to the local soda blaster. You'll be surprised at the finish that it will leave. The rust that you can't get to will be gone, and the best thing is that it's non-envasive to your parts.
It's okay for touch up and protected areas, you might have to go back and touch up after a while but I think it looks okay unless you want show chrome. Follow the instructions on the can though, if you get too close it messes up big time. I used some primer under chrome paint on one of my carbs and it looks great and has held up for quite a while now.
the stuff you buy at pep boys and things like that give fair results,if the rust isnt too bad saturate the wheel off the car with pb blast or w~d 40 wrap in a soaked towl for a few days,then as one person mentioned us sos pads or triple gauge steel wool and oil.if that doesnt work then go the rattle can route but unlike most other paints "chrome paint" cant be applied with a brush, has to be sprayed on and for most chrome paints you cant clear over it because it will turn gray.
Try polishing your wheels with buffing compound to clean up the rust. Using a Brillo or SOS pad will ruin the plating. You want your cleaner to be softer than the metal and steel wool is harder than the plating. If the centers clean up really nice but the "gully" looks like crap you might try finding a nice polished set of trim rings and using those. Personally I think the chrome paint looks like crap. It's not as terrible when it's not right next to real chrome. If you just had a few flaked off areas and didn't want them to be so obvious you could touch some in there but it's never going to look "right".
I Strongly dissagree with that statement. Nothing cleans rust and scuzz off of chrome like SOS soap pads. Never had them scratch, even on cheep crappy '70 Japanese motorcycle chrome. I guess the upside to using "chrome" spraypaint over chrome is that it should come off easy with mineral sprits when it looks like crap. What's wrong with a little oxidation anyways? People are too friggin' obsessed with shit looking like new.
try this. sounds retarded, but it works on small pits and rust spots... ball up a piece of aluminum foil, packed down a bit, but not a solid ball. rough edges and many facets is what you want. pour some coke (yea, the soda-pop) on the ball of foil and buff the pits out with that. sounds ignorant and like i'm jerkin your chain, but the shit works wonders.
steel wool is harder than chromium? i have seen this happen on stainless and i know you can get buff marks in the chrome with wool, but is the wool some kinda tool steel?
Well,when I mentioned SOS pads, I thought we were trying to improve rust....the soap in SOS pads works kinda like water when you wet sand, it cuts down on the abrasive action where you don't want it. If we are gonna get anal about a few very minor scuffs, then I stand by my other suggestion, send them out to the chromer. I will say that we don't have anyone blasting with soda around here, but that sounds like an interesting solution, but if the rust is heavy, knock it down with brillo first.
I would say rust is preferable to chrome spray paint. I've had steel wool scratch chrome, but only if it's really nice chrome that shouldn't need steel wool anyway, and it was OO wool, not the real fine stuff. If the chrome is far enough gone to rust, steel wool will only help the situation. The finer the better. Also remember, any rust you scrub out is extremely abrasive and the steel wool will hold it. Could very well be the source of the chrome scratches we're talking about. Turtle wax chrome polish is good stuff despite it's wal-mart nature.
The chrome paints tend to dull out severely after application of clear. Before clear: After clear: I think silver paint would have done just as well, been cheaper, and you would have expected the outcome you got.
You might want to try some of the copper kitchen scrubbing pads. It works nicely with minimal scratching. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31492&showall=1
I took a couple of old grill pcs. to the local powder coater to see what they would look like with chrome powder coating. It looked more gray than chrome, I didn't like it at all.
Donnie, I've used it a few times with mixed results. If you are touching up a real small spot that isn't in a highly visable area you can usually get away with it. But for anything else it shows up like a bad toupee
All 4 wheels have it and it's fairly noticeable since it's in that valley where the valve stem is. Someone suggested beauty rings, that could work, do they come in chrome or only stainless? I also thought of putting some nice full hubcaps on 'em. I'd have chrome rim edges instead of RED.
just painted up some wheels this AM. Look great while fresh, but we know they will fade. I tried a coat of gloss clear over the top, no way. Just dulls it to silver. but a true hotrodder from the day likely did this. I remember using aluminum paint of quite a few old flaked off chrome wheels. Sold many sets after a touch up and made some bucks. you would be period correct!
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