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What about old Cragar rims? Granted the chrome flaked off if you looked at them wrong but plated they were........Maybe they were magnesium? That's ferrous too though isn't it?

No you can definitely chrome plate aluminum, so lets get that settled. Reason I know?

Back in the day (mid 80's) I spent well over a thousand bucks getting chrome work done on a custom Harley 'sportster' I had that was a show bike. The bike was a '75 XLCH with drag pipes and I had the aluminum forks (superglide) completely chromed along with the aluminum lower end cases and other aluminum bits and pieces. It was a beautiful bike and I'm sorry as the day is long that I sold it.

So yeah, you can chrome aluminum.

Before you chrome steel you plate it in copper and usually nickel as well, neither of which is a ferrous metal. If copper will stick to it, you can chrome it (including plastic!). Anodizing is a different process altogether from plating.

Shimano used to apply a shiny finish some of their boom era, aluminum components, though I hesitate to call it chrome.

Cambio Rino did a whole gruppo in the 80s with chrome plated alloy parts. IIRC the stuff was mostly Campy copy stuff, at about a GS/Triomphe level of quality.

I had the wheels on my Yamaha R1 polished and then chrome plated. The chrome was much easier to keep clean than the aluminum, and much more resistant to corrosion (though chrome plated aluminum is prone to pitting if not done properly, and even then, it should be kept clean and waxed).

Chrome plating is an electro-chemical process, and aluminum does conduct electricity.

Sold these this summer , definitely chromed...

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3270/...3a17888d_b.jpg

Chromed alloy rims were definitely available in the BMX world of the early 80s, and I think were made by Araya. It was definitely one of the big, quality, mainstream brands.

seems to me that the difference between the classic "triple chrome plating" of steel that all the Harley guys and classic car nuts swear by (and that's copper, followed by nickel, followed by chromium) and aluminum chroming is that aluminum never has the layers of copper and nickel but just the chromium directly applied. It does not seem to stick very well, but that may be due to cleanliness of the skill of the plater. I know I've paid to have plastic parts plated with something called "chrome" and it's not a process that involves heating the plastic (obvious) or passing an electric current through it (obvious, too) but is done with "evaporation" in a chamber or cabinet, and it puts an extremely thin layer of metal on the plastic (also prone to peeling off, as we know from auto trim and model kits).

The big chainring, maybe. Those crankarms and the spider look like unplated aluminum.

yes , maybe I should have specified

which is why you basically cant get un-coated AL bike parts nowadays... its always clear anodized, which is a mixed blessing as anyone thats tried to go back and polish something that has been clear coated like this knows. Basically it looks great when new, and resists scratches etc.. better there bare AL but the moment it does get scratched there is no going back without a huge hassle.

I had a set of chromed alluminum bullhorns on one of my ss bikes, chromed alluminum, not polished alluminum, chromed ;)

FWIW, I just bought a Cinelli XA stem on ebay, NOS in the box. I noticed on the box it says "made from light forging alloy, chrome plated components."

As my wife likes to say;

"All of us is smarter than any one of us!" :thumb:

Thanks for the enlightenment. :)

Caswell sells chrome plating kits for the hobbyist, and yes, you can chrome plate aluminum.

See here:

http://www.caswellplating.com/kits/zincate.htm

ya, I'm looking at replacing the wheels on my Corvette with chromed duplicates.

And...Pirates > ninjas, lauren.


Aargh.

Keep those wheels for the Summer, will you.

Chrome on Aluminum is done, polish, acid etch, then copper, nickel then chrome. hopefully with little polishing afterward, as too much heat can set up for problems of adhesion later.

By the way, Jaguar stamps a special serial number into the alloy wheels it chromes PRIOR to them being plated, to tell them apart from the dealer sublet wheels that frequently fail much faster as the process was forced and or steps skipped. I'm sorry, your wheels were aftermarket, no warranty for you, will cost you $400. per wheel to have them stripped and done right

Now, the thermal expansion of the various layers and the base can play havoc, as can microscopic voids in the plating layers. Or a 'through" scratch can really get the peeling going.

ICS did this to some Campagnolo parts years ago, seen on various show bikes too.

Pretty? not for me. Bling? perhaps. durable? Let's pretend.

The rings are not chromed.

http://inlinethumb23.webshots.com/39...600x600Q85.jpg

Ah. New to this Corvette stuff. You are saying that the factory chromed aluminum wheels are not durable? I dunno, myself (sorry about the leetle hijack).

Aargh...