Was alot of chrome the norm for modified hot rods of that era? Was it a "if ya had the money ya would" thing. The manufactures were throwing it on the new cars for sure. Just trying to get a feel for how it was. Thanks for chiming in.
I think the Show Rods excelled at "chromification"!! Doesn't make sense to have a fully chromed chassis, engine, brakes etc if you're actually gonna DRIVE the thing! But I DO love 60's Show Rods!
I think the big difference between back then, and now, is that back then the factory plating wasn't that old, so usually you could just wash and wax the existing chrome, and go cruising. Even if you had some nasty chrome pieces, chances are the local junkyard would have some cars with nice chrome to pick off. Nowadays, it has become rare to find nice chrome on a cheap project, especially the pot metal parts. Also, if a guy wanted to get extra stuff plated, the parts themselves didn't have 60+ years of rust and grime on them, so it generally wasn't as difficult. For instance, A NOS 32 wishbone will be much easier to polish and plate than one that spent 20+/- years on the road and the other 60 or so next to it. I've only been around the custom plating business for about 15 years, and I've noticed a general decline in core conditions. A lot of very dented, rotten parts, parts with multiple replates in their past (and customers claiming they can't find any better cores) makes for a lot more love needed to get them right.
The other thing to bear in mind is that what you see in the old magazines is the cream of the crop. They just didn't go out into the neighborhood and snag an article on Good Time Joe's dailey. There was more chrome and fancier offerings in general in the '60s than the '50s. Shows like Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best make one believe that all was hunky dorey in the '50s but there was a minor recession in that decade that the country was just comming out of in the '60s.
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