Last year I spoke to Aaron Norlund (another W32 owner) who replaced his chainplates with aluminum bronze.
He said he ordered 3/8" flat rod from onlinemetals.com, and said the machining and bending was quite easy. The deeper bent chainplate was bent in two places to get around the bending limitations of aluminum bronze.
At 3/8" the bronze chainplates are stronger than the stainless.
I'm thinking of going the bronze route, though I'd prefer silicon bronze if I can find it.
