No chrome wheels from the factory no matter how much you want it to be so. In Y2K when they went to the thin spokes GM had two versions a painted and a high polish wheel. Both versions were forged aluminum wheels. Due to production issues they could not get enough forged wheels from the supplier so the painted wheel was changed over to the Speedline cast wheel which had a thicker spoke. GM ran with this combination for sometime. In mid year 2004 friends of mine noticed cracks in their forged high polish wheels. One had an 01 that was delivered in March of 01 and the other had an early 02 that was delivered in July 01. The dealer for the guy with the 02 warrantied the wheel but when the new wheel was delivered it did not match the other three wheels. The spokes were slightly thicker and it turned out that GM had switched their replacement high polish wheels over to the cast wheel from Speedline. To correct the situation the dealer warrantied the 3 remaining wheels. The guy with the 01 just missed the warranty cut off but the dealer helped with the wheel replacement so he was able to replace all 4 wheels for less than $400. Neither of these cars were tracked. They were highway cars with little to no in town driving.

There were several Corvette shops/used Vette dealers that offered chromed OEM wheels. You sent them your wheels and they chromed them or sent you another set that had been chromed. Corvette Mike http://www.corvettemike.com/shop/ind...heels&pf=10010 was the biggest used dealer that provided this service. It was not cheaper than ordering the high polish option.

Bill

 

I can't say from personal experience about '01 wheels, but I certainly can about the early '00. When I ordered my '00, the QF5 option was for polished and clearcoated thin-spoke forged wheels. The polished forged wheels also had slightly thinner spokes than the painted wheels. You could see the difference if you looked at them side-by-side.
I was told the painted wheels were cast, and required a slightly thicker spoke for strength.

Chrome was absolutely not offered from the factory at that time.
I remember the polished wheels were in short supply, and back-ordered for awhile in '00, because they were forged rather than cast, and there was a problem at the forging manufacturer.

My local dealer resorted to replacing the painted wheels with chromed cast ones, don't know where he got them, but I assumed he just sent wheels out for chroming. He charged the same $800 as the polished wheels, but his chrome ones had the slightly thicker spokes. Actually I thought the chrome looked a lot better and more shiney than my polished ones (mine have a lot of buff marks on the sides of the spokes under the clearcoat). At that time his chrome wheels were only chromed on the outside, the inner rim was left painted - the polished wheels were polished and clearcoated all the way to the inner edge of the rim. Made them real easy to differentiate between the two.

Hope this personal experience helps - can't say about the later ones.

DG

 

It's only you who is hard to convince!

No chrome plated factory OEM thin spoke wheels were ever produced.

 

Bill, DG,

Thanks for taking the time to explain this. I expect the original owner/purchaser of my 2000 got the wheels through the dealer. Mine are chromed all around. The backside if the wheel doesn't have near the level of chrome as the exposed outer area. They are pitted in the lightly chrome area and the main reason I want to replace them with something new. I know I want chrome again, just can't choose what wheel style to get. I have thought about the ZR1 look-a-likes, but not sure how that will look.

 

It's true that the high polished clear coated QF5 wheels look very much like chrome. They are VERY shiny and mirror-like.

The ONLY thinspoke wheels that are, in fact, chrome plated are aftermarket.

If you see high-polished and chrome side by side, then you can tell the difference. Otherwise very difficult!

 

I just had an air leak crack in my C5 2000 front wheel. Replaced it. Attached are pictures. Is the oldwheel the dreaded "thin spoke". Is the new one OK?