My chrome plated rims, (astro?) are showing extreme corrosion at the copper plating level, under the chrome and the nickel. Anybody have experience reconditioning their existing wheels with the specialists who visit the car dealers? How about replacements from the used parts market? '01 VDP, 16 inch rims, I assume were standard.

 

I would highly recommend getting them refinished by a local rim repair shop. First reason, ...if you go and buy used ones, you'll probably want to get them refinished anyways. So why buy something you already have...right? Second, when they refinish them, they will make sure they are true. Yours are in great shaped for some I've seen them fix (a piece of rebar off the road run through both sides of the rim). They are real good at factory colors or custom if you want. Mine took about 4-5 days if I recall correctly, but that would be determined by how busy they are.
If you want to check used pricing, go here for local yards... Car-Part.com--Used Auto Parts Market
I had mine done a little over 6 yrs ago and they still look as great as the pic. One peeled in the lug hole last summer and they redid for $75. I'm presently looking at having them redone to more of a gun metal color.

 

I had a similar issue where I had some chromed Pentas from the junkyard with some mild exterior corrosion (flaking in some places from brake dust). Tire shop told me they had some pretty bad corrosion internally, I still ran them a while until they started losing air... The outside of the rims looked mostly OK but the inside was awful. I only really saw the extent of the corrosion after seeing the rims with no tires. Aluminum corrosion scars that were very deep, maybe 1/8 inch in a few spots.

When I called a rim repair shop before knowing about the internal corrosion, they told me that just the fact that the chrome was flaking off on the outside meant it was a no-go for renewal. I ended up replacing them for some aftermarket rims that were a pretty good deal, and will allow me to run Brembo calipers should I ever get the urge

 

those look great. What did the reconditioning cost?

 

I almost went the route of buying older chrome rims to redo. Getting rims rechromed is very expensive and not too many places would do it because of the process and the cost. Places in CA seem to be the ones that do a lot of this type of work. I was quoted about $400 per rim from a known rim shop in NJ to rechrome. However, to take off chrome and powder coat it was aroud $200 per rim. Much more reasonable and no need to send out the rim out of state.

 

$100 ea.

 

I had my chrome rims redone 2 years ago. But They used PVD vs Chrome, because the cost of chrome was high and very few places do it, because of the EPA rules now. So I had all 5 stripped and PVD is way cheaper, and most any wheel shop can now redo them in the future. I am not sure about your rims, but mine were only chromed on the face and not the whole rim. The PVD coating is the whole rim, so it is easy to clean, and looks great. The only issue with PVD, is you do not want it around salt all the time.

 

These rims are called Lunar and only came in 16 x 7J I think.
Mine are just painted silver but the chrome looks good.

7J x 16 Lunar Wheel