Dayton Wire Wheels

I recently took a trip to Dayton Wire Wheels (DWW), in where else… Dayton, Ohio!, to collect 6 wheels for Allen R’s 1931 Packard LeBaron-bodied cabriolet. Unfortunately DWW doesn’t allow photography inside their facility but I was fortunate to get the “nickel tour”.  The company has been producing wire wheels since 1916 – a time when virtually all cars used them!!  Today, their market is significantly smaller but very specialized, producing everything from wheels for antiques to the modern “dubs” that can be attached as bolt-on or knock-off styles.  They also produce motorcycle wheels – very similar to automobile wheels but usually a bit narrower.  Perhaps the most amazing product offered by DWW is their Plating Process – more specifically the lost art of chrome plating.

The shop is enormous with stations for punching holes in wheel centers and outer rims, spoke creation, plating, polishing, truing, and packaging.  Wheel centers and outer rims are purchase as solid pieces then holes are punched to make room for spokes.  The spokes arrive in large round bundles of “wire” – most are stainless steel for strength and longevity.  These are custom cut depending on the number of spokes and the wheel diameter.  Some of the “dubs” use thinner spokes in higher number as opposed to older cars such as Allen’s Packard. The job was to replace the spokes with stainless steel and to chrome the wheels as well as the outer trim rings.

The plating process is a myriad of liquid baths to remove dirt, grease and even old chrome plating in order to provide a smooth surface.  The plating process itself involves using electrolysis to attract the nickle plating to whatever is being plated.  The biggest difference in the quality of the plating is relative to the time that the object spends immersed in the plating solution – the longer the better! A downside is that the work is neither fast nor inexpensive.  This particular restoration and repairs took 3 months!!!

Until Next Time…

Matthew –