65 KO Spinners - Replate or Replace?

[Glenn Rogers]

My 16 year old reproduction Corvette America KO wheel spinners are starting to lose their chrome plating pretty badly. The wheels and adapters are fine. Is replating feasible, or is it better to fork out about $600 for a set of 4 new first quality reproduction KO spinners and SS Cones for my 1965.

Small plating shops in the U.S. seem to be harder to find these days and I'm 1000 miles from our southern border.

By the way, has anyone seen the new bolt-on KOs up close? Are they really indistinguishable from the real spin-in KO wheels when mounted, or can experts look close and tell them apart?

[Wayne P.]

Re: 65 KO Spinners - Replate or Replace?

Easily replatable by any run of the mill chrome shop. Bolt-ons looks as good as the other repros.

[Richard L.]

Glenn and Wayne...

You might want to look more closely at the "new" Corvette America (CA) Direct-Bolt KO's being manufactured by KMC (Chinese maufacturer), as they are "supposedly" using the existing tooling (casting and machining processes) to make these wheels for CA...

I purchased/received 5 Direct-Bolt KO wheels on July 12th which were reported to be the first shipment of wheels manufactured by KMC/China. The wheels were noticably different, most particularly in individual fin width. I have a set of original '65 K-H KO's and the fin width is .125"... The "new" set of CA/KMC Direct-Bolt KO's had a fin width of .250"... As Jerry Bramlett would say, they were "Butt Ugly"...They're not even close...

Needless to say, I returned the wheels for a full credit as aesthetically they looked pretty bad and I didn't want to spend that kind of money for a wheel that, in my opinion, doesn't even come close to the original specifications/configuration...

John Hinckley has been in touch with senior management with CA and they have reported back to John that they are looking into this issue... I haven't heard an update from John on his inquiry but I'll drop him an email and see what the latest information is from CA on this matter...

It's obvious to me that somehow the tooling got altered after the decision was made to use KMC/China as the manufacturer for the KO's...

Also keep in mind that the '67 Bolt On wheel sold by CA is the same wheel as the '65-'66 Direct-Bolt KO, minus the spinner and associated hardware...So if you buy a new set of '67 wheels the fin width is going to be "fatter" than the original...

I hope they get this problem fixed as I would like to buy a set of these wheels, but not until they get the process closer to the original specifications...

Hope this helps...

Rick

[John H.]

Re: Glenn and Wayne...

After a number of e-mail exchanges and comparative photos of the previous U.S.-made and new Chinese-made wheels (allegedly made with the same tooling, with no tooling or process changes) I sent to CA, I haven't heard anything back from them. They were caught off-guard by the photos of their "new" '67 bolt-on wheels I sent them (same raw casting as the KO's), as they claimed none had been shipped yet from China and they hadn't seen any yet. If I hear anything from them I'll post an update.

[Wayne P.]

Re: Glenn and Wayne...

My comments were related to the previously producted wheels, which I have on my 66 convertible with goldlines. I have not seen the Chinese wheels.