Projects Who's making 14" Chrome Reverse (NOT smoothies)?

I appreciate any help that can be given. I'm working on making my '64 Impala into a traditional inspired kustom (not lowrider). I looked into wheel vintiques 64 series, but they're standard offset 15" wheels. I called Wheel Smith and they said they're not able to make 14x7 chrome reverse with the Chevy 4.75 bolt pattern - they only offer the multilug wheels that you can buy from summit and speedway.

This might be a silly question, I've scoured the web and aside from what few listings come up on a mere few rusty chrome reverse on ebay - are there any companies that make 14x6 or 14x7 chrome reverse wheels, 5 lug? I know there isn't much support for 14" wheels. Only 8 years ago, I bought a brand new set off a guy on Marketplace, who had them custom made for a 'Milner coupe clone', but claimed the offset was wasn't right so they were open box. It was perfect for my ride at the time. I only paid $400 for the set...it was the best deal. I wish badly I had kept the wheels when I sold the car just a couple years ago. I kinda figured if I ever needed to have a set, I know I could rely on Wheel Smith or another company to make them. I remember he said there was a company out of Rhode Island or Connecticut that made them, that's all I know.

Thanks for reading and for your help!

 

Wheel Vintiques is the ONLY new wheel company making non-smoothie '50s/60s style steel wheels currently, but don't offer a chrome version in 14" for some reason. That leaves you with two choices; contact them and see if they'll custom-build you a set or buy a plain set, disassemble them by grinding the welds away, send the parts out for plating, then reassemble. As an alternate, if you can track down a good OEM set (good luck with that!) you could drill the rivets out, weld up the holes then plate the parts and reassemble them. I doubt that any of these options will be inexpensive...

I'll note here if you decide to go the DIY route, make sure you tell the plater to skip the copper base. This will contaminate any welds and they'll fail. Virtually all modern chrome wheels only have nickel/chrome plating.

I'll throw this out here... This guy (Full Chrome Five Slot Wheel — Pavement Equipped) builds-to-order these Astro Custom style wheels that are very much a 'traditional' wheel for that pre-alloy-wheel era. These were everywhere in the early '60s but fell out of favor when aluminum wheels came in. These aren't quite identical to the originals as he's slightly redesigned them to fix the original's flaws of excessive weight and a reputation for cracking around the lug nut holes, but you'll have to be an expert to see the differences. I bought a set from him after Wheel Vintiques strung me along by continuing to move delivery forward on the 15" wheels I ordered. After waiting six months, they moved it out another couple of months so I canceled that order and went with these. He builds a first-rate product, I couldn't be more pleased. As a bonus, he'll do custom offsets at no charge. Downside is you're back to 15" wheels and he doesn't have the hub covers/knockoffs. But those are now available from this guy (Lug Nut King - online) to complete them. You'll have the only set around!

 

I'm not aware of anyone making chrome reverse in a 14" size. I respect your commitment to keeping it truly period-appropriate with the 14" wheels even when popular culture seems to hate all forms of 14's, but I doubt highly you'll be able to find new ones.

If you look around long enough, you'd probably be able to find a set (or make a set) of NOS ones, but it'll take a while. To build a set and have them chromed is also possible but will be extremely expensive. I worked in a chrome shop, plating is pricey but plating wheels is especially difficult with a deep dish to them, you have to have a tank set up specifically for that purpose.

I really like a 14" wheel on the right application but the rest of the buying public seems to shun them, I'd be pretty surprised if there was enough market for someone to manufacture new ones in a proper-looking chrome reverse.

I have a pair of little chrome stamped covers that look like the center of a chrome reverse wheel, although I have no idea who made them or where you'd look for more. But a set of those, in the right bolt pattern to cover up the ugly lug pattern of the smoothie wheel, might also work.