Ok I'm looking into this since the painting route did not go so well. It chipped well I got an alignment and looked bad then the freaking brake fluid leached on it...looks so bad now!

So I wanted to chrome the darn things...the chromer says the acid bath will destroy the rubber seal for the bearing though...so what do I do? The bearings are not replacable from what I have been told... you typically have to buy a new whole unit...

Have any of you chromed yours, how? Do you have to get 2 sets from a junk yard and destroy the plates on one set to get the bearings out whole and then destroy the bearings and rip them out of the other set and then get it chromed and get the other bearings put in?

I did some searching, but the posts were so old and the info did not answer my questions...All I got was to have the chromer watch the heat level...still its the acid bath I was told was the problem...

Now Kandied, if you see this thread...I found out thru old treads that you polished yours...then cleared them...if I decided to strictly polish them...would they rust if I did not clear them? Cause touching up the polishing for shows is not a big deal I have to do that anyway on the plenum and AC lines...I just don't want to strip off the surface only to find out they are going to rust on me....

Heck I may opt to get them ceramic coated...though I wonder what the heat will do to the bearings?

 

Hmmmm.

The only thing I would suggest is to jump over to the "Suspension" board and do a search on "Hunter Motorsports." Eventually you'll come across a large post about him doing custom strut tower brackets; my suggestion to you is to see if he has any left over or if he's planning another run. They were expensive, but they look pretty sweet. I got mine anodized in red, and then clear coated them. You just know if you go through all the trouble to have some OEM brackets dipped and then press in the bearings and stuff that it'll get all scratched up and that would suck.

S.

 

Or try better paint, or better yet, powdercoat them.

 

I don't know about painting those ones, Shannon, powdercoat is probably the way to go, but I remember reading on TomP's suspension post that KYB makes strut mounts for our cars that have replaceable bearings. You could probably have them chromed, and then install the bearings.

Mathius

 

Well I had to get them to the chromer, so I looked at them really close. It looked like the bearing was held in by 2 plates. There were pins holding this plate together. Since they were spare pieces form the junkyard...we knocked of the backside of the pins and knocked them out. Sure enough the bearings were in a plate that came out the top of the strut tower. So I'm bearing free now. Now I just have to see how much to chrome them and what it will take to reinstall that bearing plate. I may also se about replacing the bearings since the plate is out anyway. So its servicable, but not something GM would norrmaly want to go thru...

 

yes they are serviceable if you can find parts but you're better off getting new ones from autozone or other place like that , I believe they are in the $50 range each or so , nobody ever replaces these so most likely those are original and probably beaten to death.