I have an old covico steering wheel that I would like to get replated.Has anybody here done this without ruining the hard rubber rim? thanks ahead for any help Bill
While I've only got limited knowledge of chroming. I'm ***uming that if you wanted to restore the Covico, if it's like the Cragar or Superior wheels, the grip would have to be redone after the chroming process since they'd strip it of the rubber/plastic material. You might be better off finding a suitable replacement rather than restoring that wheel.
they dont strip the wheel, just rechrome the metal parts or polish the stainless then you have to refinish the rest wayne
Because I'm curious, how does a wheel like this get chromed without disturbing the plastic? Can you provide some info on this?
the chroming process wont hurt the rubber, the only issue is the chrome wont go right up to the rubber so you have to add a bit of the material to go down the spokes
The plating process itself probably won't hurt the plastic and can be taped up to be safe, but the polishing process can mar up and gouge the plastic with the slightest slip of the polisher. Also, as mentioned earlier, the plating won't have a clean seam going underneath the plastic as it had when new. The best outcome is to have the wheel plated as it was originally; without plastic.
Just got it back from the chrome shop,and it came out great! I could have saved a lot of wheels if I found about this earlier.
The rubber is discolored from sitting outside for years with a leather wrap that slowly fell apart and left the marks.it has been drilled with two extra holes in the center
I had the same wheel re-chromed for my coupe. Just taped up the plastic and it came out great like yours. I'm pretty sure you can polish out that discoloration on the grip. Good luck.
Dave Clark had one done for the Teixeira build a few years ago and it came out nice....small inperfection next to the rubber but still looked great. Mr.Swisher yours looks nice.
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