Got the rims (oem painted) for my new 07 chrome plated, went back to the tire shop and they start mounting the tires, first ok, second ok, third ok, on the fourt after the tire is mounted the guy start releasing air for about one minute. After that the 19" rim shows two big buckles about the size of my hand. Their answer, the chrome plating weaken the rim, or defective rim. They have never seen something like that in 30+ years in business and they are not at fault.
Luckily the dealer is a friend of mine and will replace the rim but I think the shop is responsible by putting to much air.
Question for the experts here, by releasing air for about one minute, how much air did he put? would the overpressure collapse the rim? Thanks.

 

not seeing any pics its hard to say but before psi would bend a good rim the tire would fail.is the damage at the contact points of the mounter arms.i would be concerned about the lot of rims

 

No - releasing the air had nothing to do with it. The shop is blameless.

The process of chrome plating wheels heats them a good deal (at least if its done right), and at least in the case of one of your wheels, the heating was enough to soften the long term strength of that wheel. The damage is done by taking the metal pass a "point of no return in its structure" -- hardened casting or forging strengthbuilt into it when cast or forged, and intended in the design, is lost and the wheel is now much weaker (it's a metalurgical thing -- I took a course in it in college 40 years ago but barely remember the technical term -- tensional grain hysterisis or something like that - ugh).

Two points:
First, this is a well known problem with wheel plating, particularly when done to wheels not plated at the factory. Frankly, I'd find another shop: if they haven't "seen this in 30+ years in business" then they've had their eyes closed or never dealt with high performance cars.
Second, one of your wheels buckledwhile you weren't driving -- you were lucky: had it failed while you were hauling butt, you could have been really hurt. Given that all four were treated to the same plating process, if it were my car, I would toss them in the recycling dumpsterand never take the chance of driving on them, particularly fast.
I also would advise not going with aftermarket-plated wheels: usually it flakes off in a few years (unless the wheel was really heated during the plating process!) andthat heating sometimes weakens the rim\, as you have discovered.

If you want good shiny wheels, buy aftermarket chromed wheels - they are designed to be plated and then manufactured and plated properly. Usually they weigh a bit more than stock (the metal is softer so it takes and holds plating well, but there is more of it so the wheel is strong enough). If you want shiny light wheels (for high performance) buy forged but highly polished aluminum -- it is virtually the same as chrome (see pictures of the Fiske's on my car in the gallery), but be prepared to pay upwards of $800/wheel (sometimes way upwards).

 

You can't blame the shop this time. Air had nothing to do with the rim buckling, it was the plating process that most likely caused the metal to soften up.
I would question the shop that did the plating, depending on what and how they plated it, I would be hesitant about taking anything back there.
I have had many many things plated for many many years, probably spent upwards of 20K on plating alone for my cars and bikes, and It is extremely hard to find a good shop these days. Atleast one that can be trusted, so I'm afraid the blame needs to be put on the shop that did the plating.

 

Having used to work for a shop, the amount of air that would do that to a rim would of poped the tire, again i belive it was the place that plated the rim since to do so there supost to clean the metal which usaly they dip it into a bath of HOT nickel.

 

As is typical on Saturdays I had lunch with my son (service manager at a large Ford dealership). I told him about this post and he said:

"We must get one person a month in here pissing and moaning about bad wheels after they had them chromed and wanting replacement under warranty - even wanting Ford to pay the cost of the plating, too. We have a standard write up and refer them to the warranty policy, etc., but some are still steamed. It's their own fault. I've never seen a bad accident blamed on wheel failure although plated wheels often break or bend when hitting potholes and the tires and suspension are ruined."

 

they are bad from gm ,plating got them that? i dont think so unless they had them sittin in 600 degree oven for a few hours

 

Thank you for your responses but I think Extanker got it right.
Even dealers send painted rims to chrome plating and charge $800+.
This plating shop charged me $360.
The service manager looked at the rim and said most likely it is a defective rim because it feels too light and too thin. BTW, these new Vettes rims are made in Italy. I ended up being a winner because the dealer ( friend of mine) put on the carfour other rims and tires from another vette on the lot, those were the factory chrome AND he put the chrome embossedcenter caps to top it off.Now I am a happy camper.

 

You were very lucky you had a solicitous friend.And believe it: aftermarket chromiing weaknes rims.Dealers spend $8000 for chrome to have it done "right" (low heat, high pressure. Cheap chrome jobs use heat and ruin rims.

You lucked out this time.

 

I find it very difficult to believe factory rims were bad. They are supposed to be pretty thin by the way. Flaws like that just don't happen very often, they are very very rare. Weakening from overheating when plating chrome onto aluminim is very common, so common that they won't even allow you to run chromed rims on some of the exrtreme tracks where they let you make really high-speed runs up to 165+. So, IMO it islikely the inexpensive plating caused the problem. You're just lucky your friend at the dealer was not aware of this like Lee's son's dealership and so he was willing to give you a new set of wheels.