Better than chrome04:11:37 PMBack when I started racing (this car), I bought first one, and then a second set of wheels for my dry tires. 
Both sets were from CCW, who make great--and reasonably-priced--forged wheels. The second set was polished and looks almost like chrome. More importantly, brake dust, of which there is a lot, falls off almost effortlessly.
But the first set was not so lucky. You can see it in the lower photo in this post. For reasons I won't go into, the first set were shot-peened to a rough surface and then brite anodized (yes, that's the right spelling) a somewhat drab silver. They have never been as pretty as the polished ones but, more importantly, they are miserable to get clean.
Miserable.
Well, I was whining about this the other day to Bryce at Wheel Medic, one of my racing sponsors, and he said, "well, let's just powder coat them." He then proceeded to explain to me why you can't chrome plate racing wheels and probably shouldn't chrome plate any wheels: It makes them brittle. Also, chrome is prone to chipping off.
But it turns out there are new powder coating techniques that can give your wheels a polished- or chrome-like finish but without compromising the strength of the wheel. When Bryce suggested using that I said, "yeah, but my wheels have this rough surface on them. Won't that look like...you-know-what?"
He said, "No problem. It will fill that in." To be honest, I didn't completely believe him but he's the wheel refinishing expert so I took his advice. This afternoon I picked the wheels up and he was right: They are beautiful and smooth and, well, look like jewelry.
That's the upper photo in this post.
It's a little amazing.
While mine are a chrome-like finish (except, I think, maybe just a teench darker and prettier), they will have a black chrome color as early as next week and can also tint the wheels so you get a colored chrome look (like, blue or purple or whatever).
It costs less than chrome, looks as good or better, is more durable, and doesn't make the wheel brittle. It's pretty amazing and they can do it for cars or motorcycles or probably any other kind of wheel you can think of. If you want to know more, call Bryce at 800-826-5795 (and tell him you read about it here).
Really...they look spectacular.
