My black Mk2 Cooper S has 10 x 7 inch chromed wheels that were made in the 1970s by Bernie Pfitzner Engineering using outer spun halves obtained from a supplier in Sydney welded to a Cooper S inner half and centre. The chrome is looking a bit tatty and the wheels need complete refurbishing and re- rolling.
I got a quote from a local wheel restorer to get them refurbished which means taking the wheels apart (which includes removing the centres) beed blasting them and getting them re-chromed, then welding back together. $550 per wheel, which seemed a bit steep to me.
I’d really like to keep theses wheels as chromies were popular in the 70s and I’m wanting to preserve the original look and patina of the car. They also look great against the black bodywork and are very eye-catching. But at that price it would be a lot cheaper to get some new polished 10 x 7 top of the range Force Racing rims from England, which look similar to the old Mawer rims that I used to have on my blue Mk1 S in the late 60s.
Their new ST10 design three piece split rims at the bottom of the page priced at £139 each is the one I had in mind.
http://www.force-racing.co.uk/wheels-10/My first question is: does anyone know of anywhere that can get chrome wheels re-chromed for a more reasonable cost?
Second question is: how do polished rims compare with chromed ones in term of the ‘bling’ factor?
Huddersfield Spares also do a couple of chromed wheel sets – a traditional Minilite style and a Revolution wheel – but these are only 10 x 6 inch which is ok but doesn’t have quite the same impact stance on a Mini that 7 inch wide deep offsets convey
http://www.minispares-online.co.uk/6x10 ... ssic-mini/ 
