for the air leaks caused by peeling chrome, this is what i did.
First buy or dust off your resporator, a good one, not like the dust mask/
swine flu preventer....lol
what i did was got a die grinder with a good wire brush, and got all that loose chrome off the inside of the wheel. (I too have put fix a flat in my wheel, and ill tell you, its corrosive also.) after that, i got an angle grinder with a 80 grit sanding disk, and feathered all the loose chrome back to good "still sticking" chrome. paying special attention to the sealing lip, getting it really smooth, and still not getting into the "face" of the wheel.
after this, i prepped the wheel with paint prep, i went and got some GOOD
primer/filler. i used AeroPRO 5976 high build primer/filler from NAPA.
i procedded to spray the whole interior of the wheel, sanding between coats till really smooth. this primer is great, and only took 2 coats.
ta-da shouldnt have leaks anymore.
what i found was that as the tire is being mounted to the wheel, the tire bead scrapes the loose chrome and gets caught between the sealing surfaces, the lip of the wheel, and the bead of the tire, allowing air to escape as a result. also, i made sure the tire guy used a nice bead of that thin rubber bead sealer.
you never see any of this work, unless the tire is off the rim, but it stops or slows the "cancer" of the peeling chrome/fix a flat corosion, and fixed my slow tire leaks.
i still have one tire to do, i will try to do a write up with pictures sometime.
i AM still alive, just dont have a computer anymore.
good luck with the tires!
hope all are well
David
IndianaVX