Has anybody ever chromed the old Dayton Fayette Wheels?

[Chief_Smackaho]

I'm just curious as to what it would look like if I did it. 5 Wheels including one spare and was thinking of chroming these wheels against a black drum for heat dissipation and a little bit of Flash for my 1970 monitor travel trailer. here are the wheels and the trailer that they are on.

">

">Dayton Fayette wheel

[srd357]

With your pickup truck's front wheels, almost off the ground, please invest in a weight distribution hitch first, before someone gets killed.

[Gdetrailer]

Chief Smackaho wrote:
If I wasn't so much of a stickler for originality. I would convert to hugs over to standard 5 lug now. When I feel as though it would be a violation even to myself or to this camper. I love the look of these wheels and to me, it might actually be worth it to have them cry at least for myself. Even though the cost might be up there. Long term might be worth it to me.

After two years of searching I did finally find and purchase a spare wheel will match all the rest of them. It's a bit difficult for me to bring myself to changing everything over.

Umm.. I hate to tell you, CHROMING the rims IS NOT GOING TO BE "ORIGINAL" at all.

Your statements and your idea of chroming are conflicting.

That style of rim was only for trailers and I highly doubt that a chromed version was ever offered.

IF you really wanted to be "original" then you NEED to find the HUB CAPS that would have been over top of the rims..

Personally unless you chromed the drums and lug bolts I would think those rims would really look stupid and even then not really convinced that it would look all that great..

If you really want chrome, pony up for newer 5 bolt on 4.5 drums and buy two sets of chromed mag rims..

As I pointed out and someone else mentioned, chroming is not cheap and GOOD CHROME is even far more expensive..

It is a labor intensive job with a lot of highly toxic materials used in the process.. Not only does the paint have to be stripped off but the rims must be free of rust, pitted areas must be repaired, dents and bends must be removed.. You PAY for the labor to properly prep the rims, then you PAY for all the cleaning and prep, then you PAY for each plating process..

Done right it can look great but done on the cheap and you may as well use some pretend "chrome" rattle can paint.

Save your money and time, dig up some nice looking wheel covers (AKA "HUB CAPS"), repaint the rims a nice basic black and call it a day..

[Gdetrailer]

trail-explorer wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
standard Ford 5 bolt pattern.

....and that is "What" bolt pattern?

5 bolt on 4.5" pattern, used by Ford from 1950s-1980s on pretty much EVERY passenger car and even light trucks (F100-F150) with 15" rims in many cases..

Not sure, GM and Chrysler may have used that pattern SOME but not on a regular basis which is why it IS often referred to the FORD 5 on 4.5" pattern.

That pattern eventually made it's way to trailer axles, specifically 3,500 lb trailer axles..

The fact it was used for such a long time in the automotive world makes it very inexpensive and easy to find rims for the trailer world..

New white spoke rims start out around $40 now days and can get Chromed ones for a little more.

[westend]

Powder coating can be just as good as chroming.

Buick done with powder coat

[trail-explorer]

Gdetrailer wrote:
standard Ford 5 bolt pattern.

....and that is "What" bolt pattern?

[OH48Lt]

VERY expensive getting larger items done with a quality chrome shop. Down to bare metal, treat the metal, copper plate it then chrome dip and polish.

I've had some items chromed for a new product I created for Harley. Wound up having to more than double the price of the product. You can get it done a bit cheaper at some shops, but the result isn't nearly as good as a quality job.

[Chief_Smackaho]

After two years of searching I did finally find and purchase a spare wheel that will match all the rest of them. It's a bit difficult for me to bring myself to changing everything over two different lug pattern.

[Chief_Smackaho]

If I wasn't so much of a stickler for originality. I would convert to hugs over to standard 5 lug now. When I feel as though it would be a violation even to myself or to this camper. I love the look of these wheels and to me, it might actually be worth it to have them cry at least for myself. Even though the cost might be up there. Long term might be worth it to me.

[K-9_HANDLER]

Good to see a Monitor still out there.Had a 1968 Monitor that I restored about 17 years ago.

[Gdetrailer]

Chief Smackaho wrote:
I'm just curious as to what it would look like if I did it. 5 Wheels including one spare and was thinking of chroming these wheels against a black drum for heat dissipation and a little bit of Flash for my 1970 monitor travel trailer. here are the wheels and the trailer that they are on.

">

">Dayton Fayette wheel

Waste of your money.

Instead, check into changing the DRUMs to the standard Ford 5 bolt pattern.

Then if you really want chrome you can buy standard chromed rims in the Ford 5 bolt pattern.

Then you can put your Dexter/Dayton/Fayette 4 bolt obsolete rims up for sale.. They often are asking $175-$250 each..

I was able to change my old Dexter star rims to Ford 5 bolt pattern after checking with Dexter tech support and they verified that my axle was a 3500 lb axle..

Your axle MAY be a Dexter axle and not Dayton or Fayette, was a very common bolt pattern used by many axle manufacturers back then, now it is obsolete and the rims are costly (not to mention hard to find).

Check the drum, it should have the manufacturer name molded in and several numbers, the axles themselves should have a aluminum tag wrapped around one of the sides of the tubes.

My trailer did not come with a spare so I was faced with finding a hard to find and very expensive obsolete rim.. It was money well worth spent moving to a easy to find bolt pattern..

I spent $35 per rim and the drums were $120 per pair..

A good quality chrome job WILL cost you much more than you think..

[eHoefler]

You can powder coat them chrome, I did mine, and they look good and doesn't cost near as much.

[Dr_Quick]

On my previous trailer I bought some chrome hubcaps from the local auto store. then painted the wheel rim and brake drums black. I thought that it was a nice upgrade for the trailer. Whole cost was about $50.00.

Only problem I had with installing them on my trailer, was that the bearing cap stuck out about 1/4" to much, so the hub caps would not fit tight. So I used a hole saw to cut out the center of the plastic hubcap, then painted the bearing cover silver color. And you really could hardly notice the bearing cap was not part of the hub cap.


Dr Quick

[Reedga]

The chroming of those old wheels would be a nice cosmetic appearance upgrade, however the cost of chroming, would you be more than the value of your trailer. Chroming is very very expensive today. I would suggest you consider looking into new drums/backing plate brake assembling if necessary and aluminum wheels rather than chroming those old wheels.

[Chief_Smackaho]

Thank you. I hope so. That's what I'm looking forward to.