I am going to have the hubcaps on my 60 polished. Just wondering if they are stainless steel or flash chromed

 

If they re original they are both. Thjey were made of stainless but to cut down on polishing labor they were flashed chromed. Matter of fact all of the exterior stainless was flashed chromed.

 

Do you know of anyone that can rechrome these pieces as I an going to restore all of the exterior chrome. Also the interior pieces are they flashed chrome to?

Thank You

 

Most reputable plating shops can replate the chrome and stainless pieces.
The members in my club have used Pauls Plating in Evans City, Pa., Martins of Philiadelphia, and Frankford Plating in Philiadelphia, Pa with excellent results. Good Luck with your C-1.

 

Kinda off topic but how do you stop them from turning! I have had to replace both back value stems because the hubcap turns and cuts the stem -- unless I drive it lake grandma... I have repo wheels and hubcaps for CC...

 

I havent heard of how to stop the caps from turning but you can use metal valve stems to prevent a flat.

 

Showem,
All stainless trim is flash-chromed on C1 cars, interior and exterior. The wheel covers are flash chromed as well, and have a special finish in the center section that needs to be replaced after polishing. The center of the cover is a burnished finish, while the rest of the cover is polished.
Rick Applegate at AREBA Services can restore your covers to look just like they did when they left the factory. He runs an ad in the Driveline all the time. Flash-chroming is a real niche market, and very few platers will mess with it. You do not want standard triple-plating done on this trim, as it will change the whole look of the trim. Also, unless you are building a high-point NCRS car, most people will never notice that your trim was not re-plated after polishing. The polished stainless trim will have a very slight yellow cast to it, but usually will not be noticed by most people, including most judges. The flash-chrome gave the trim a slightly blue cast which matched the chrome plated pieces like the windshield posts, where it abutted them. The stainless will very slowly oxidize over time and will yellow a little more as it does, but with normal care and hand polishing, it will look great forever. This is an issue for those of us who are really **** retentive about points on a judged car. I had all the trim flash chromed on my Duntov 60 after I polished it, but did not do it on my high-end 59 resto-rod, and nobody but me will ever probably notice!
This stainless can be polished to a mirror finish, and will look great without plating.

Regards, John McGraw

 

As Donald noted, steel valve stems are the only "cure"; I tried lots of other approaches after I put radials on my original '57 rims and the problem surfaced, and nothing worked. Finally had steel valve stems installed, and that solved the problem.

 

Interesting Post as I've heard of this problem but haven't experienced it myself in 35 years of spirited driving of the car many thousands of miles with and without radials. I will say my caps fit very tight and I really have to pry hard to pop them loose. Could it be that some of the retaining nubs arent as high or perhaps after market caps weren't as tight a fit??

 

Anyone ever tried burnishing the center section themselves? I had my covers flash chromed by an OEM wheel cover source for GM about 12 years ago.

Considering removing the spinner, jacking up one wheel and spinning the wheel/cover and holding something against it.

Any ideas?

Chris

 

I do my own. I made a tool to spin in my drill press that is lined with a green scotchbrite pad, and you can't tell the pattern form original. The key is to mask the cover well at the edge of the depression, so that you will not burnish anything but the depression. I molded the depression with eopxy, with saran wrap to make it release from the cover. After the epoxy was set, I glued the scotchbrite to it and mounted it on a mandrel. I think that you could apply the pattern pretty easily by hand with a scotchbrite pad while spinning the tire on the car. I have never taken a single point deduct on my wheelcovers.

Regards, John McGraw