chrome pricing question

so,,,,,, I'm getting alot closer on the old 53 pontiac and now comes the part I dread... Paying to have the chrome re-done....

now,,, yes,,, for all the chrome haters, It doesn't NEED chrome to run,,, it is running just fine without it..... and a girl doesn't NEED boobs, but I sure like lookin at 'em.

does anyone have a company that they recommend for chroming? or any idea how much it should cost to have the following chromed?

1. complete grill
2. headlight trim rings
3. hood ornament
4. rear backup lense bezels
5. front bumper
6. rear bumper
7. front bumper bumper gaurds (two of them)
8. rear bumper gaurds (two of them and one that connects the two together)
9. mirror housing and bracket

I know I'm not going to be able to afford it all at once so I'll start with the grill,,,, the bumpers are "acceptable" so they would be last....

here is a pic of a complete grill for an idea....

http://www.sunbeltcars.com/images/pontiac53chief_front.jpg

 

I sure hope you are sitting down when you get the price answer.

 

i think bumpers are about 300 - 400 each the rest have no clue
but there is guy in nj that is pretty good he id all the chrome on my bike i will look up the info

 

around $2400.00!

 

i paid 220 to have the buick front bumper straightened and rechromed, also that for the rear. other smaller things will be less of course, i would guess arounf 1500-2000.00

 

i have over $1200 on just rechroming parts on my wifes 1950 schwinn......have fun

 

2400 isn't NEARLY as bad as I thought!!!!....

my motorcycles have typically run me around $1000 in chrome, but it is alot of little parts that are usually a bitch to polish.

now I just need to find a shop in the midwest and I'm in buisiness!!

 

$4,000-5,000 will come closer.....

 

A buddy of mine just got 3 headliner bows chromed for his 51 Poncho hard top 450 bux. He's looking around for the rest of it to be done else where. It's going to be close to 2k or more to get your grill done. At least that is what it cost around here. If you want to put Chevy bumpers on your car you can buy new ones from chevys of the fortys for about 330 each. Cheap chrome ain't good and good chrome ain't cheap.

 

A friend was at 1800/2000 for a 48 chevy grille..yikes

 

Ha, a friend of mine who's a chrome plater seems to base his prices on where he goes on vacation.

 

chromeplaterjosh on here does that stuff... at least I think thats his name on here, he did all the chrome work on that blue kaiser that just got painted at winfields. There is a large thread on here about it. Talk to him!

 

I am close to 5K on my Chevy and some more to do! that includes the interior molding and dash!

 

If you are willing to consider an alternative, pm Stude-sled. He started up a spectrachrome business recently.

 

Having a brain fart here...but there is a really good shop either Dubuque or Davenport, sorry for being so vague.

 

I'd start with an estimate at Advanced Plating in Nashville. They'll more than likely be the high end but also one of the best in quality. I deal with Vern's here in California and they are high too, but like paint jobs you get what you pay for.

 

I haven't seen any pros or cons on here but has anybody sent anything to Advance Plating in Nashville? I understand that they are still operating since the flood and everything?

 

Try any Keystone Auto Parts. You drop your stuff at your local store, and they ship it to thier big chrome shop in Minnesota and you pick it back up at the same store you dropped it.

Usually two months door to door, but good work and pretty good prices, and it's kinda close to Iowa...

Good luck, -Abone.

 

Depends on what level of quality you want. "Show chrome" will run you the most. Only a good plater can give you an estimate after seeing the pieces. Come with at least $5K in your wallet. Stay away from Bumper Boyz out of CA.

 

^ This. I've used them a number of times, they do great work and they're reasonably priced (well, as far as the pricing for chrome plating goes.) The plating shop is in Brainerd, it used to be known as North Star Bumper before Keystone bought them.

edit: I think they just work on bumpers, you'll have to check. You may have to send the other stuff elsewhere.

 

Thanks! You got my name right even. Check out our website and the Kaiser build. www.chromeplatingin.com There is a link to the Kaiser build on our website under testimonials.
You can shoot me a PM and ask as many questions as you dare, I will answer you. It will be a big expense, but it will take your car up a few notches too. You get a lifetime warranty against plating defects, even on pot metal.
If you can come in person (which I recommend,) I can show you whatever has been just done so you can have a tangible idea of quality. Shipping the parts is fine too; many of our customers I have never even seen. You can also do a search on the HAMB for all posts done by me and get all kinds of plating info.

I'll check out the pics and come up with a ballpark, but obviously I can't know an exact price without seeing your parts completly disassembled. When pricing out parts, many times I base pricing on the condition of the backside, because parts usually rot out from the inside out where the part was never cleaned and had the thinnest plating. Not unlike how rust forms under painted body panels and looks many times worse once paint is removed.

 

Josh, do you guys repair and polish stainless also?
Thanks Frankie.

 

I've used Howard Walker at Walkers Custom Chrome in Shasta Lake Ca. for the past 40 years. Customer's are always pleased with his work. Quality costs a lot these days. Marks '49 ran $2400 for two bumpers and one grill comprised of four peices. A previous Buick Riv ran $7500. Yours probably around $4500. I had him chrome the dropped axle and spindles in my '28 in 1968 and it still glows with over 300,000 miles of abuse. You only need his kind of quality if you plan on competive shows or you want your stuff to last. If you buy the cheap shit, it don't shine and after awhile you get little red spots and it peels......my 2 cents

 

Yes I do. Trim is usually $15/ft and up, with most pieces charging 18-22.


Back to the original question:
complete grill $1400
I'd say $3500 is a good start for a guess for everything you listed.

This is for very nice quality finish, with very small imperfections. Frankly, even the best possible
finish will have some sort of imperfection, unless you can get God to do it. All you have to do is look close enough. The idea is to minimize
imperfections as much as possible. For our #1 quality, we charge hourly, similar to a body shop, and work on the part(s) until we cannot get it any nicer.

Warranty is lifetime, and covers all plating defects. (peeling, blistering, yellowing, etc.) We are pretty much the best deal if you want really nice quality and the top-end durabilty to go with.
If you want your chromed parts' outcome to be a question and save some money, there are many many hacks out there. I am fixing their stuff regularly. Please don't do that.
If I don't think a particular part lends itself well enough to restoring, I will warn you first, especially if there is something I don't think can be repaired to my liking. That isn't very often, as I prefer to fix the worst broken and rotten parts, just for my own personal satisfaction.

 

I've found my guy....

Josh, I'll give you a call tomorrow...

I have a complete extra grill also, so any parts that are "questionable" I have a spare. all of the parts are actually in GREAT shape, not even any dents to in the grill. the fenders have a couple dents (not really dents??? don't know how to describe them) from using the bumper jack,, its just on the bottom where it bent the steel up a little.. otherwize the parts are in GREAT shape.

I'll get pic's of all of it in detail and give you a call.....

and as you guessed,, I don't need #1 quality show chrome,, this is a driver,,, i've driven it to work every day this week... it won't see winter, but I plan to drive more than a few sets of wheels off it......

 

Here's who I used...and some pix from my Caddy build:

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=329070&highlight=the+best+55+caddy+build

Here’s the story…I went to the GG’s event here in ColoRODo the first of June…one of the vendors there was advertising their plating…I examined partial bumpers hanging there and noticed they were doing copper plating as a step, something most platers don’t do anymore. I asked about it…”Yes, we copper everything and triple plate,” Steve told me.

He showed me some examples, needless to say I was impressed…I was also impressed (in my own mind) that the price would be astronomical…

"Can you give me an idea of price for a ’55 Caddy front bumper?” I asked.

“I’ll do better than that,” he said, “I’ll give you an exact price,” and with that he grabbed a three ring binder. “Caddy, 1955, front bumper lower center, right?” He said.

I nodded and replied in the affirmative.

His fingers did the walking down the price list until he came to 1955…”$310.00,” he said. “Serious?” I said, somewhat taken aback cuz the local Denver plater wanted $450.00 – without copper…!!!

“How does your stuff compare to “show chrome”? I ponderd aloud.

“As good,” he replied.

OK, I think coppering adds a needed depth, thinking I may have to spend some cash to get what I want…I figured out the cost of shipping in my head...about $40.00 each way …add $80 to $310 and we’re close to the other plater’s price, BUT, these guys use copper, I thot - better deal, better looking chrome. “How long, what kind of turn- around if I ship it out?” I asked.

“Two week turn, three/four days of travel each way,” Steve said. “We’ll send Fed-Ex to pick up your bumper.”

WHAT…???

“You call us when you’re ready to send it, we’ll call Fed –Ex, give them a pickup tag and they’ll pick it up right from your front step, Steve said.”

“Sure and you’ll add that price to the costs?”

“No,” Steve replied, “we’ll pay shipping both ways.”

“Wait...!!! You’ll pay for the shipping both ways and not increase the cost of the bumper?” I stammered, unsure of what I just heard.

“Yep,” he replied.

“How can you do that?” I asked.

“Cost of doing business,” he said. “Besides, if we do a good job for you, you’ll tell your friends…word of mouth is the best form of advertising anywhere.”

"You’re correct,” I said, “but it can also work against you if you don’t turn out a good product.”

“We simply don’t,” Steve said.

“OK,” I countered, “you’re on, I call you on Tuesday,”

Monday nite I boxed the bumper up and called Tuesday morn…Fed-Ex picked it up in the afternoon. That was June 8th…add two weeks, that puts it to the 25th of June…I went to Pueblo for the NSRA Nats that weekend (missed the debut of my Caddy at that event as well)…commenting to my bro the bumper should be arriving the next week. Sure enuff, the bumper arrived Thursday, July First…I could hardly wait to unwrap it to see if it really was “good.” I was shocked…it’s simply the best I’ve ever seen…FWIW, it had a dent in the driver’s side, looked like someone hit a parking block…told the platers it was there and asked if they’d work it out and how much… “included in the price,” they told me.” I can’t even tell where the dent was…



As you can see, when you can read the newspaper in the reflection, you know it’s good…I’m happy and for once, someone I depended on got it done. IF you look real close, or enlarge this photo, that dark refelction is the grille and font end of a '59 Caddy.It's also about six feet away from this table and bumper...!!!

Now then, the plater’s company name is Ogden Chrome, out of Ogden, Utah…you can e-mail Steve at: [email protected], check out their website at www.ogdenchrome.com or actually phone them at 1 801 394-9449…I’d recommend them highly…



I've since priced three more pieces with them...and sent some pix of the Dagmars I need chromed (and you can read the whole bumper deal on my build thread) but haven't gotten a price on those yet.

Obviously it's your choice, but to me it's a great price and stellar work.

R-

 

Thank you Josh, my car has more stainless than chrome.

 

53 Pontiac, ouch, lots of chrome & trim = lots of $$$. I know this because I have one in the shop I'm building for a friend.
If you have the time you can do as we did and save some bucks, especially on the stainless. For some reason the stainless seems to be fairly easy to find NOS for the 53 Pontiac. We bought a lot of what we needed of of Ebay over the last couple years for a lot less the the labor would be to repair what we had. Couple examples, pair of headlight rims, $12 each. 1/4 moulding ( the long one, 6' or so, $35 and it would of cost $200 to fix the one on the car. Of course you got to remember it's Ebay and a couple pieces wern't as perfect as desribed but still we were $$$ ahead in the long run. We ended up only needing to chrome a couple small pieces of the grill we couldn't find, got a perfect grill for around $400 total, lot better then the $1400 the chrome shop wanted to rechrome the original.

 

I don't have any problems finding NOS chrome for the grill of the 53.. or most parts on it for that matter....

the problem is the ORIGINAL NOS chome was SHIT on 53 pontiacs!!!!!

it is "korean" chrome. the reason the chrome didn't hold up on 53's is that they didn't use the nickle coating on them. they put the chrome right on top of the copper!!! I've talked to a couple guys that owned them when they were new and said the stock chrome was good for a couple years at best before getting dull, dingy, and starting to peel.

If i'm going to spend money I would rather have it chromed RIGHT than track down NOS parts that are marked up because they are "nos" but are really just the crappy original parts with poor chrome.

I appeciate the information,, but i'm just explaing WHAT my reasoning is for not buying NOS parts for the car.

 

i just spent 1500 bux on interior chrome alone. mind you anything that could be unbolted easily got chromed. i am gunna have to drive with sunglasses. *bling*