How To Pry Skin Off Hub Cap?

[Bingster]

How does one pry the chromed outer skin off of a round Desoto '1947 hub cap?

The outer skin is crimped from behind by a thin bead of metal bent over the back side. Looks like it might snap into place. I notice two very small holes opposite each other on each side of the back of the cap, right near the edge where this crimp is. A small hobby screwdriver could fit into it. It's more of a slanted pry hole, which leads me to believe that that is what it's for.

A chrome shop told me that they could remove this outer skin, make repairs to the skin and chrome it, then put it back onto the steel core. But how?

I have a spare cap to practice on. Any suggestions?

[steveplym]

I tried to pry one off an extra one I had. I had one with a better backing and another with a better skin. The skin ended up tearing from being rusted together. I could not get it off. Maybe the chrome shop would have different tools and better luck.

[Plymouthy Adams]

if you carefully unzip the rolled edge, you will find that the skin still has an adhesive..I found it rather easy to just twist the skin back and forth and work it off...the skin can then be worked of major dings...getting them back on will require that you re-roll the endges at 180 degree as you walk it back down...else it will set offside..a tad of 3M adhesive will hold it however but be sure you apply to both skin and cap..let set then touch them together..

[Andydodge]

I had my original 40 Dodge hubcaps rechromed many yrs ago and I just left the outer skin on, it is made of brass, plated really well......andyd

[stellarrestorations]

We have had skinned hubcaps re-chromed. The chrome shop I used charged $150 per cap (several years ago). That price was if I let them do the whole thing.

I decided to do the repair myself, so I carefully worked the folded edge up on about 2/3 or so of the diameter of the skin, and was able to slip the rest of the skin off from there.

Removing the skin allowed me to sandblast the steel center, as the chrome shop wants absolutely NO rust in their plating tanks, or it will contaminate them.

Afterwards, I used a DA sander with 80 grit paper to sand off the chrome down to the brass. This was on the recommendation of the plater. He didn't like stripping the chrome because it would cause the brass skin to pit.

After repairing the skins, I sanded them up to 220 grit with the DA, and then slipped them back onto the steel cores. I found it difficult to get them as tight as original, so I used a little silver solder in several places to permanently fasten them.

These were non MOPAR hubcaps, and didn't have any of the adhesive that others are mentioning.

After all the time I spent doing the repairs, the chrome shop still charged me $75 ea. to plate them. It would have been more cost effective just to let the plater do the whole thing.