5 Means To Repair Your Chrome Rims

A shiny set up of chrome wheels will plow heads on the street, but it comes with a drawback: chrome rims are difficult and expensive to repair. Unfortunately, because chrome rims are plated rather than painted, repairs are expensive and circuitous. Often times, information technology's cheaper to supersede a damaged chrome rim than it is to try and refinish and re-plate it.

Still, if you have a chrome rim that's been curbed, there are some things you can try. (And if you don't have chrome rims, cheque out this post that covers all kinds of rim repair.)

1. Use A Chrome Bicycle Repair Kit

There is such a thing as a chrome wheel repair kit, but fundamentally information technology doesn't 'repair' anything. Instead, chrome cycle repair kits but aid you smooth out minor damage and use pigment.

These kits are relatively affordable ($fifty-75), and if the damage is actually small, a little fleck of chrome pigment tin piece of work. Merely be sure to follow the instructions, and don't be surprised if the fix looks it was but $50.

Annotation: There are generic "wheel rim repair kits" that say they piece of work on chrome wheels…don't buy these kits for a chrome bike. Instead, get a kit that'south specifically for chrome rims, or just buy the chrome pigment and other pieces one at a time.

ii. Refinish With Epoxy And Apply Chrome Pigment

The process goes like this:

  1. Fill up all the scratches and holes with difficult epoxy resin.
  2. Buff the hardened epoxy to smooth information technology out with the residue of the rim.
  3. Sand the epoxy with fine-course sandpaper or steel wool to make it gritty enough to cling to the spray paint.
  4. Spray the entire rim with chrome spray paint.
  5. Buff the rim with a buffer or a soft buffing material.

This solution works on all levels of harm. Still, this is a task best suited for an experienced person. Epoxy resin tin can be a messy disaster to piece of work with, and the end result may not be every bit smooth equally expected.

three. Sandblast The Chrome Abroad And Paint The Bicycle Underneath

This solution is viable just if you're OK with giving upwardly the chrome look.

Past doing this, yous'll:

  • Salvage a lot of money
  • Give your rims a new life
  • Change the look of your car without having to buy new rims

Chrome rims are plated over alloy wheels. Sandblasting the unabridged rim will remove all the chrome plating and expose the alloy bike underneath. You and so may coat the alloy wheels with powder coating (or any other type of paint you'd like).

four. Re-Chrome

If you desire to remove the unabridged chrome plating and still continue the chrome look, leave information technology to a professional. The re-chroming process involves stripping the rim and then re-plating information technology with copper, zinc, and chrome.

FYI, you may end up paying more for re-plating than you would ownership a new wheel.

The chrome refinishing process produces some toxic waste, and then yous'll have to find a professional to re-chrome your rims. You might even need to mail your rims to another state to accept it done. The costs may add together up chop-chop.

5. Supercede The Rim

Chrome rims cooper cobra

Unless yous're trying to preserve a rim for some reason, replacement is probably your best choice. Most of the other options either cost more or await worse.

Or, Cover Up The Harm With RimBlades

If replacing a damaged chrome rim is out of the question, and the repair options are all either too expensive or not satisfactory, nosotros take another option for you: Apply RimBlades (or RIMSavers) to your chrome wheels. This will cover upward most types of curb rash and give your vehicle a dainty expect.

RimBlades foreclose farther harm, too. Win-win.

To shop RimBlades, RimSavers, and our products, check out our products here.