[Chrysler300] plating and old 300 rims

["christopher beilby" <thelastbestgenius@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

1) (a)  Any plating of steel items - be it a wheel rim, or something as 
simple as a bolt, or more importantly, the bolt that goes through the end, 
or secures, the end of a leaf spring - can cause the item/part to fail - due 
as mentioned to 'embrittlement'.

Many of our old car bolts were often originally cad or zinc plated, and we 
may like to make them look like new again in a resto - working on my dad's 
old Austin Healey (hey I might be stupid, but I have not finished it yet, I 
am not going to waste that much time working on it - I mean I last drove it 
in 1969, and the memory still inspires me to not be too rushed !! ), we sent 
off a heap of various bolts, including the ones in the rear end of the rear 
leaf springs, to get zinc plated.  Re-installed on the car, it lasted about 
3 days before it snapped, car never moved a foot or was even let down off 
jacks  - MORAL - NEVER RE-PlATE, ZINC or CAD, ANY DARK BLUE FINISH BOLT - 
steel grey color mild steel ones are not so risky - but never do high 
tensile ones that are the darker color.

If your plater knows what he is doing - maybe - I believe they have to go in 
an oven near immediately they come out of plating process - others may know 
more?

1) (b) using stainless steel bolts in cars/autos also raises 
questions/worries - often they are not as strong, plus stainless against 
steel causes electroylsis, and also stainless can weld/lock thread ?!  Any 
further more qualified comments on this appreciated.

1) (c) In Australia, chromed parts have been banned for decades/ever from 
use in competition, because of added fracture risks.  And chrome wire spoke 
wheels on Jags from 50s-60s always seemed prone to breaking spokes, but then 
that may have been to sloppy tensioning in UK when made ??!  Ah those good 
old poms, and their so unfriendly cars to work on !!!!

2)  Original rims on 300s.  I seem to remember Jerry Rushing's (aka DUKES OF 
HAZZARD) Moonshine running 300D tales/exploits listing breaking rims as one 
of his few 300D problems - but hey he was carrying supposed hundreds of 
gallons extra load/weight?!   By the weight of my 300C rims, they are likely 
same guage as today's supposed radial type rims, so only fatigue from high 
miles, or fractures from kerb jumping likely tro cause any failures ?!.

But the comment re running 15 inch size versus the old 14s is valid - that 
what I use on my main driver 300C, but this mainly to get a bigger modern 
size equivalent in radial to replace orig large 14 incher.

Not much 300 news here, except great to see a new '56 300B here in Oz, and 
from the two lots of photos I have been sent of '56 or earlier Mopar seat 
belts, they are certainly way different in many ways to the '57 Mopar ones 
known to 3 lots of people and in my ex Daytona 300C.

Crazy weather here - 114 degrees in west, yet near jumper weather here today 
in South Australia, but then near one foot of rain in just over couple of 
days in the Centre, many places cut off - Lake Eyre looks like filling, it 
near our biggest salt lake that is supposedly better than Bonneville - it 
maybe wet this year which will upset bigger number of US racers coming there 
each year - Lake Gardiner.

Christopher - once again aplos to all of you who knew all this stuff 
already.



>From: "Rich Barber" <c300@xxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: <C300@xxxxxxx>
>To: <choochooch@xxxxxxx>,<tomlin@xxxxxxxxx>,<Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>CC: <awrdoc@xxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: RE: [Chrysler300] Radials on older rims
>Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2007 22:33:27 -0800
>
>This is chilling news as I believe the Motor Wheel wheels on my 1955
>Chrysler C-300 have been rechromed.  Motor Wheel may have chromed their 
>rims
>in a manner so as to minimize or eliminate H2 embrittlement, but Joe Blow's
>Chromeshop's capabilities and care are big questions.  I believe there is a
>process to drive out H2 after plating--possibly heat treating?  Also, as a
>pipeline engineer, I recall that different alloys of steel have differing
>susceptibility to H2 cracking and that the environment can impact the
>probability of failure.  Clean dry wheels may perform different than those
>exposed to salt water.
>
>It would be valuable input to this dialog to confirm whether the failed
>wheel was a Kelsey Hayes (doubtful) or Motor Wheel (more likely) and what
>kind/size tire was mounted.  The Motor Wheel brand name is stamped on the
>inner surface of the wheel (tire has to be off to view) and Motor Wheel
>wheels have 48 spokes.  I believe Kelsey-Hayes brand wheels had 4-8 more
>spokes.  It is a common, but erroneous, assumption that the spoke wheels on
>Chryslers are Kelsey Hayes.  It is also likely that the metallurgy and
>fabrication processes of the two brands of wheels is similar.
>
>C-300'ly,
>Rich Barber
>Brentwood, CA
>1955 Chrysler C-300 (At least the spokes are stainless steel)
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
>Behalf Of choochooch@xxxxxxx
>Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2007 8:14 PM
>To: tomlin@xxxxxxxxx; Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>Cc: awrdoc@xxxxxxxxx
>Subject: Re: [Chrysler300] Radials on older rims
>
>I too have had a wheel come apart. One of my Kelsey Hayes wire wheels on
>the
>C-300 came apart while cornering (fortunately at low speed). The strange
>thing is that it looked great front and back and when re-chromed a few 
>years
>
>ago,  no one reported problems. While my experience makes me  wonder about
>these
>order wheels generally, it didn't appear to be related  to tire type.
>
>

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