spartangreek

My '88 Z51 has chrome plated turbine wheels. Can anyone tell me the story on these? I bought a new '88 that had a Z52 suspension and it came stock with the dull matte Stainless turbine wheels which I never was enamored with. The chrome ones on my current one however look great and i get all kinds of compliments from people on how much they like them. Were these an option or did they come stock with the Z51 package?
thanks in advance.....

Joe C

chrome wheels were not an option, and did not come with the z51 package. most likely, a previous owner purchased a chrome set or had the originals plated.

dukeofny808

Any pics?

RollaMo-LT4

Chrome wheels were not available on any C4.

QCVette

I answered a few days ago, and it still applies.

spartangreek

thanks for all you replies. I suspected the chrome wheels weren't stock but was not sure. I like the chrome ones a lot. there are more pictures in my gallery if you are interested. two days ago my vette was parked off of a main highway in town, while i was inside waiting to see a doctor. i saw a beautiful two tone champagne/black '87 roll into the lot and park next to mine. i went out to see the person and he had just swung in to check out my '88 he said that the car was immaculate and the wheels were the first thing that caught his eye. He even took pictures. we had a nice conversation, he asked for my card and we will try to link up for a drive to the coast and it made my day....way cool!

LongBeachC4

My 85 has chromed factory rims, They are not aftermarket and they where not chromed afterwards. I have a Z51 and the rims are in great shape with only a small section on the inside of the rim on one rim showing some peal. These are the Japaneses 9 1/2" on all corners. I have them in the garage for now. The PO was the original owner. Chrome and paint shows as original.

jay1055

I have to disagree they are factory wheels that have been chrome plated after they left Bowling green. Jay

RollaMo-LT4

Sorry, but it did not leave the factory with Chrome wheels.
They were not available from the factory at that time.

Now a dealer might have added them before it was sold to the first owner. Dealers do stuff like that all the time, even today.

spartangreek

Now a dealer might have added them before it was sold to the first owner. Dealers do stuff like that all the time, even today.

I don't doubt that dealers do that but it seems a little weird for them to do that without a special request from the buyer. The wheels on my vette were probably installed that way. I am the 3rd owner and have all of the records, over 1 1/2" thick, of work and expenditures paid out for the vehicle since the first owner. there is no indication that extra money was paid for chroming the wheels or buying new ones after it was brought home......very interesting!

LongBeachC4

My suspicion is they might have been bought thru the parts department and swapped when the dealer got the car. The areas that would be painted black were never chromed, as most any chrome shop would just chrome the whole rim, that is still bare metal and painted along with the centers. I have only seen pics of a couple of other Vettes with these rims. It's also interesting that they could have put a aftermarket rim on the car as lots of dealers did back then, that would have been much easier but they went with a chrome factory rim. It would be interesting if this was a parts department accessory of sorts. Aftermarket back then would not have made a exact copy of the factory rim and them just chrome it. These rims have been on the car since new as per the PO who was the original buyer.

spartangreek

Very good point you made about the portion of the rim painted black! I always thought that it was done for visual effect, over the chrome, but you're right, that part of the rim is not chromed. The ones they sell on ecklers site are all chrome. silly of me to have thought it was painted over the chrome because paint would not stick well to chrome....this isn't a big deal but it sure brings up some interesting thoughts. i have not seen any wheels like these before, on other 88's so they are few and far apart. Too bad there is no historical documentation on how these wheels came to be. Your scenario seems to be a very good one.

c4cruiser

1985 factory wheels had black centers and black paint in the vanes sao the chrome wheels pictured were painted to look like OEM '85 wheels. It's entirely possible that a dealer could have had original wheels chromed and the black paint re-done and offered as a dealer-installed package.

In the early C4 models, the OEM wheels were made by at least two manufacturers. Western Wheels made some as did Enkei. IIRC, the Eneki 9.5x16 wheels came with the Z51 package and also with the 87-88 Z52 suspension package.

Chevrolet never offered a OEM chrome wheel on Corvettes until (I think!) the 2013 60th Anniversary Edition car.

LongBeachC4

Inside and outside. The vain area is painted bare metal as is the center on the out side. The wheels have about 100 thou on them.

spartangreek

Your wheels are Enekie's so they are obviously OEM chromed wheels! Very nice looking too i might add. I emailed a question to GM chevy division regarding these wheels. See if I get any good info from them.....

c4cruiser

They are OEM wheels that have been chrome plated at some point by an outside vendor. The OEM black color of the '85 centers and the vanes is a semi-gloss finish from the factory. The high-gloss black paint shown in the pics is an aftermarket paint treatment, probably done at the same time as the plating. Factory wheels did not have any overspray on the back side of the wheels.