Hot Rods chrome pricing?

So while it's soaking in a copper tank for 4-5 hrs you certainly sustain an materials and utilities cost during that time. But I wonder if that's the only part in the tank at that time?
While it's soaking and getting copper applied does someone need to babysit the tank with constant supervision, or does it just need checked on?

Not sure if you missed my earlier questions

 

HRP. Hard chrome is a whole different ball game. Same basic hex chrome solution, but the setup is more technical and the plating time is greater. Hard chrome is wear surface. Say a shaft is damaged, the machine shop will clean it up and hard chrome back to dimension, plus a little because the plating is not even and will need machining after plating. If the damage was 30 thousands it may take 15 hours or more to build it back up. Hard chromers get big time money.

 

Just goes to show you I don't know crap about chrome plating that's why I let the pro's prep & chrome plate! HRP

 

Hey 31Vic. We prefer not to use "soak & dip". Like any job you have to aware of what's going on. There are always mishaps, parts loose contact & quit plating or worse fall into the bottom of the tank. But, no you don't have to stand right there the whole time. There are always plenty of things to do, strip parts, wire the next load for the nickel, go talk to the polishers about parts that need to be polished better. A good plater is the key to quality control.

It thought we touched on most of your other questions. Was something your wanted to expound on?

 

That's OK I pay attention when you talk about '32 Fords.

 

Hi redo32 Thanks for your patience and explanations of the plating process.....the public mostly are very ignorant of the work time involved with auto plating

 

So were on Oregon are you? I heard there were no more chrome shops in Oregon.

 

Oregon Plating in Portland shut down in November I understand. I've been in Springfield for 38 years an it's time for me to retire too.

 

I used to have a guy that would give me a "discount" at the chrome shop. It only was good on parts small enough that the boss wouldn't notice though..

 

I'd say that's a really really very very good deal you have

 

A guy I know did this. Got all his plating free. The only down side was his friends learning he could get free plating.

 

I just paid 150.00 for the hinges on my Roadster

 

ain't easy, ain't cheap - but, the end result is so worth it.

 

This video is pretty good I think.
It's 18 mins long, and when I got to the end and listened to the explanation of care for the finished pieces I thought to my self "who in the hell would want something like that on a car they drove"

I'm sure it's mind boggling to achieve that level of finish, and I'm sooooo sure it cost a small fortune but its nearly worthless.

For me, I want shiney Brite work and corrosion protection, that can handle grease, bug guts, and getting wiped down with a rag, and if so be it getting slopped with pig guts too.

Old style, AMF years Harley chrome, tough as nails, that shouldn't be too hard to get. A Bowling ball manufacturer managed to pull it off.

 

I have a question to add to this thread.
Is a nickel plated finish without the final chrome plate good enough to be used on an external part like a windshield frame or grille? I know its not as shiny but I think nickel plate looks good enough for a lot of parts. Will it rust when wet?

 

If I remember right nickel without the chrome over it will turn yellow with age and can corrode. I have a NOS WILLYS grille ornament that is nickel plated and it has a yellow tint to it. I took it to the chrome shop and he told me it was nickel and never had chrome on it so I took it home and found a different one to have chromed
Top row far left NOS nickel plated, two on the right are the re-chromed. I'm not sure nickel without chrome over it is as durable

 

Nickel is actually pretty durable, but does tarnish and needs to be polished occasionally. Ford used it for radiator shells on the model As, a lot of those have survived. Remember, in 'triple plate chrome', nickel is the sealer/protective layer, chrome is 'decorative'.

The most interesting part of that video is it shows the 'fixturing' that needs to be done on some parts to 'draw' the plating into recesses. Plating goes to the first surface it encounters unless this is done. Think of it like painting, except you have to keep the spray gun three feet away from the surface being painted and you can't change spray angles/distance to apply the paint. You'll see the same effect when powdercoating.

 

I used to date a girl that really knew how to POLISH the chrome.

 

Polish it too much and you will go blind..

 

Nanny nanny boo boo
I'm not gonna trade you
Because I still do

 

Paging Redo
Paging Redo
Don--
I had all this done with electroless nickel, I would like for Redo to chime in on this subject to hear his thoughts on this process and it's durability.

 

I do all my own polishing for Chrome and you need to know what your doing, you won't learn it in a few days, the part you take to the chrome shop needs to look like its already chromed !!!
Most of the cost of chome is the labour involved, the cost of the Copper, Nickel & Chomium is quite small really
Polished Nickel is fine but needs to be looked after and does have a certain vintage look, softer than the look of chrome.

 

31Vicky with a hemi - Thanks for video, maybe help people understand why some parts cost more to chrome. plus, if some steps are not done properly the cost may be lower then the final product will not very the best it could be. oh ya, just because it is chrome do not abuse the finish. never have left a blank check to pay for something. but, at times have not really wanted to know how much something was going to cost me. if I knew I might not want to do it.

 

So, what is the difference in chrome from the 1940's and 1950's as compared to today's chrome? The old stuff seems to last much longer and has a different look to it most of the time. Is it a change in the process, did EPA regulate out some of the ingredients they used back then or possibly make a chromer substitute different materials? I know a lot of the off shore plated stuff is just a flash coat, so I can see the difference in that stuff versus a triple coat of "show" chrome. In other words, is the soup different now, or just how it's put on?

 

I don't know about over in the USA but here in England we still do it the same way Copper, Nickel & Chomium 3 coatings ie triple chrome
I'm heavily involved with a chrome shop and we do a lot of re chroming after market Harley parts and nearly always they have not been coppered before the nickel goes on, mainly stuff made in the Far East !!!

 

Don... It's popular today to leave parts nickel for a different finish. Some satin finish with scotchbrite and some then clear or satin clear for still a different look. It's true '28-9 Model A's were nickel, but it was a different bath than what we use today. The nickel bath in the first part of last century didn't have any brighteners. The plating was dull and had to be buffed for a shiny finish. The plating was molecular dense and was fairly weather resistant. When they developed a brightener system that eliminated the buffing before chroming it sped up the process, but they found the nickel was not as weather resistant because the molecules stood up and moisture could penetrate and rust the substrate. During the 50's& 60's many manufacturers used different methods to combat the durability problems. Olds, Cad & Ford went with a heavy copper before nickel, chrome. Chev, Buick & Mopar went with straight nickel or a duplex nickel that used the old style flat nickel with a top coat of highspeed bright nickel before chroming.

If you keep your car indoors and waxed the nickel will hold up pretty well. If you run out of garage space & store it outdoors, you're going to disappointed when you take the tarp off it next spring.

 

Hey Denny... Electroless Nickel is an interesting finish. Abbreviated EN it is used in the electronics industries. It can be chemically modified to have a wide range of characteristics, hard-soft, bright-dull, corrosion resistance or wear resistance. As the name implies there is no electricity involved. Solution A and Solution B and dip your parts, (don't tell Vic I said dip). It is pretty thin, I think a standard finish is 0.10 of a mil. I don't have a lot of personal experience with EN as a finish on auto parts, we have some aluminum parts EN as a base to copper nickel chrome. It save us the trouble of all the extra chemicals involved in plating on aluminum.
A new solution will plate bright & as the chemicals are depleted it will plate less. The solution can be regenerated several times but eventually will be wore out. It is treated for disposal and a new batch is mixed up.
Because there is no electricity involved there is no worry about current density or special anoding .All surfaces will plate evenly.

p.s. I had an expensive brunch at the Oregon Electric Station with my family.

 

Back in the 90s I had the bumpers plated for my Cadillac and at that time I was given a tour and allowed to come and see progress. the amount of time and care they put in to the job was phenominal and well worth what I was charged. When I picked the stuff up I was given the same talk as the fellow in the video. I just this year unwrapped the stuff and assembled it, the finish is beautiful and it seems that it has hardened considerably over the years. Does this happen?

 

I heard dip
I did