Ray's Volk Racing Mesh 3 piece Restoration.

[Dattokai]

This thread needs to tagged as NSFW. 

[captaingamez]

Because of all the epic wheel pr0n in here?

[Dattokai]

Because of all the epic wheel pr0n in here?

Yes. 

[captaingamez]

The chromers took my money and sent me back black spray painted bolts.

 

I am not even kidding.

 

 

I did everything over the phone with handshake deals and they only accept wire transfer, so if they decide to screw me, I have no recourse, not even BBB.

 

 

This is one of the largest chrome shops in the entire country (12 foot chrome tanks), they actually invented Black Chrome. They deal with the US military as a client. I am really extremely upset right now, and dont know what to do. I have $400 into these bolts right now, and nothing done to them. And let me reiterate, Yes,  black spray paint..

[Stevexc]

The chromers took my money and sent me back black spray painted bolts.

 

I am not even kidding.

 

 

I did everything over the phone with handshake deals and they only accept wire transfer, so if they decide to screw me, I have no recourse, not even BBB.

 

 

This is one of the largest chrome shops in the entire country (12 foot chrome tanks), they actually invented Black Chrome. They deal with the US military as a client. I am really extremely upset right now, and dont know what to do. I have $400 into these bolts right now, and nothing done to them. And let me reiterate, Yes,  black spray paint..

 

 

What the fu#k man!!! Thats insane! No doubt you've already kicked up a stink to them? They're not willing to fix them? 

You didn't  label the wire transfer as "payment for powder coating bolts black chrome" or something? They might hold up to show you didn't get what you paid for.

Thats so shit man! I hope they fix them for you!

[captaingamez]

I am working it out with them still, thats why I havent mentioned the name of the company yet. I am giving them the opportunity to make it right.

 

 

Black chrome is not powdercoating, its a real chrome plating process with slightly different chemicals. They SPRAY PAINTED THEM!!, I would post pics but I need to get this worked out first, this is insanity.

[Stevexc]

I am working it out with them still, thats why I havent mentioned the name of the company yet. I am giving them the opportunity to make it right.

 

 

Black chrome is not powdercoating, its a real chrome plating process with slightly different chemicals. They SPRAY PAINTED THEM!!, I would post pics but I need to get this worked out first, this is insanity.

 

 

Sorry yeah *chroming* I wrote the post half asleep, either way they were paid for a job and should have done it right!

Anyone could have got a $2 spray can and painted the bolts them self. Pretty dodgy on their part, I just hope they do the right thing and fix them for you!

[captaingamez]

Yeah, I am just confused and upset at this point. Black chrome is really hard to find, I want the look really badly on my hardware.

[Omelet720]

That's straight fucked up dude.

Hope you get your bolts done right or you cash back...

[captaingamez]

Well yeah, so all that actually happened and I am still dealing with it, and it looks like im gonna get F$%KED..... so that sucks and I am out like $400 for everything they screwed me for, including the bolts because I dont know what they actually did to them, so I cant trust them.

 

So the new company reccomended a different plating called Black Electroless Nickel or EN plating. They can do black chrome as well, but he said that the Electroless Nickel actually looks better on socket head caps. they cahrge $175 a lot and can do the same ammount of bolts. So here we go again.

[Omelet720]

Dude, why the hell didn't the give you black chrome plating if that's what you fucking payed for?? I'm pissed about this, and it's not even my problem. I'm sorry you have to deal with pieces of shit like this.

[captaingamez]

I really dont know, I am pretty pissed about it still now too. I spent a lot of money with that company for some organic sprayed on crap that comes off in acetone and smells like spray paint. I dont know what happened and I dont understand why they are treating me like less than a person and less than a customer. They will not return my emails or phone calls now, and the one time he did return my email the operations manager admitted tha the didnt even look at the bolts when he got them and only looked at them at a glance when they were done to make sure they were black. Well they were already black when I sent them to them, I needed them to be black and corrosion resistant, not spray painted.

 

 

Its really upsetting because America used to be the King of Chrome, and now in 2014 I cant even trust someone to do a really simple job of chroming some bolts.

[captaingamez]

Well I have great news. I did some more searching and some finding too!!. I used a new plating company called Berkshire, this time I sent them some sample bolts of different sizes and they did them for me for free. I received back the sample today, and I was impressed by miles.

 

 

This is visually identical to what I have always called "Black chrome", but it is not, it is actually better. It is a plating process called electroless nickel, or EN plating This would be specifically Black EN plating.

[MikeRL411]

Well I have great news. I did some more searching and some finding too!!. I used a new plating company called Berkshire, this time I sent them some sample bolts of different sizes and they did them for me for free. I received back the sample today, and I was impressed by miles.

 

 

This is visually identical to what I have always called "Black chrome", but it is not, it is actually better. It is a plating process called electroless nickel, or EN plating This would be specifically Black EN plating.

Which is just what " BLACK CHROME " is, a Nickle oxide plating.

[captaingamez]

There is a true "black chrome" plating process that uses chromium not nickel. Hence the term "chrome". The point is Not all black chrome is the same thing.

[captaingamez]

[Stevexc]

 

Looks good man!!

[captaingamez]

Thanks man their getting close to done!! As soon as the bolts come back they will be ready!.

 

Then I have to seal the barrel halves and get the tires on the somehow without scuffing up the rim lips.

[RTB]

Its really upsetting because America used to be the King of Chrome, and now in 2014 I cant even trust someone to do a really simple job of chroming some bolts.

I feel your pain. I sold a set of my bumpers and the buyer wanted me to have them rechromed and have all the seams filled locally. $900 bucks. Quote for a month and a half. 4 months later they were not done and I lost out on the sale and owe the guy a bunch of money. It was ridiculous. Called every few weeks and was told "It'll be done next week" for like 2 months.

[captaingamez]

Wow thats fucked up man. I am sorry. We're getting jerked around by our chromer at work right now too, idk what it is with platers.

[gypsy punk]

So what exactly are those wheels cause I bought a set recently that look similar but the center caps are diferent mine are stamped 84c and I can't find jack on the wheels, but I started taking them apart and some of the bolts just stripped right as soon as I put a Allen in them. Any ideas on how to get them out? Also looking to get new bolts do you recommend getting those?

[captaingamez]

So what exactly are those wheels cause I bought a set recently that look similar but the center caps are diferent mine are stamped 84c and I can't find jack on the wheels, but I started taking them apart and some of the bolts just stripped right as soon as I put a Allen in them. Any ideas on how to get them out? Also looking to get new bolts do you recommend getting those?

These wheels are exactly what the title says. Ray's Engineering, Volk Racing Mesh. At least thats the only name I know them by, I was also thinking "there has to be an actual model name/number??", but thus far I havent discovered anything else on them. If you look up "volk racing mesh" you pretty much find a ton of these wheels, they are however, very hard to come by in the USA. But all Ray's wheels ever made are marked "Ray's" or "Volk Racing" and always say "Made in Japan" on them somewhere.

 

My original bolts are actually very high quality, out of 80 bolts, only one bolt stripped, because it was totally siezed on.

 

Getting my one siezed one off, I actually cut the nut in half from the back, VERY VERY CAREFULLY. That solved my problem, but I would try everything you can no to go that route.

 

For new bolts you are going to have to measure your original bolt, most likely they are M6x32, M7x32 or M8x32. Problem is, you cant really get much for M8 in wheel specific hardware like www.tunershop.com carries. And if you use regular old black oxide hardware from Ace or something, it will rust very quickly. (its called oxide because that black color is actually a form of rust).

 

Moreover, you have to measure the bolt head, seat diameter to get the right hardware. I assume your bolts are like mine, tapered down from the seat to where the internal hex is. You will not find those, and if you do, please direct me to them, because I looked for weeks.

[gypsy punk]

Yes they say rays and volk racing. And think as for the info on the bolts I hope to find something that will work! Here is a picture of mine

[captaingamez]

NICE WHEELS! Congrats on finding those, Where did you find them? do you have all the center caps? What size/width/offset are they?

 

I believe yours are actually even slightly rarer than mine are, yours are a few years older, I can tell because the "Rays eng." and "Volk Racing" logos are 180 degrees from eachother, mine are 90 degrees apart.

 

And I forgot to mention,. the bolt seat or head diameter of the bolts you get needs to be 12.9 mm to fit inside the countersink hole, unless yours are different, not %100 sure.

[gypsy punk]

NICE WHEELS! Congrats on finding those, Where did you find them? do you have all the center caps? What size/width/offset are they?

 

I believe yours are actually even slightly rarer than mine are, yours are a few years older, I can tell because the "Rays eng." and "Volk Racing" logos are 180 degrees from eachother, mine are 90 degrees apart.

 

And I forgot to mention,. the bolt seat or head diameter of the bolts you get needs to be 12.9 mm to fit inside the countersink hole, unless yours are different, not %100 sure.

Ya I do have all of them! But ya they are actually have 4 screw holes that hold the hole center on and then the actual cap threads on that. Pretty neat but ya I haven't found any info on them.. They piped uo on cl and was like I need those in my life.