Ahh, today finish some part for USA car. Actually dont know for what car, but i know that part is pot-metal/zamac and 70% is base material and 30% is mine copper Was in very bad condition, but now ready for shows...
Calm down fellas, I didn't want to start a pissin' contest. I am not trying to beat anyone out of a job or I don't want to take my "homegrown" eggs in a Waffle House for them to cook. I ask questions because I am curious,I do not wake up in the morning wanting to start a fight. I just purchased some carpet for my house. I ask the store if I could do something to cut my cost. He told me to rip out the old ,take up the transitions,and clean up all the pad. I did that ,I didn't do it so his kids would starve I did it because I wanted to save some money to spend elsewhere. So this crap of jumping down everyones throat when they ask about how to do it is B.S. It seems to me that a lot of people estimate somethings worth by how much it costs( YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR )crowd. Nothing could be further from the truth. If that were the truth we would all be driving Bentleys ,wearing Armanti shoes and eating Cavier.
(1) Show chrome = $1000 Street chrome (you can see some pits and scratches) = $500 Prep it yourself = $250 I have had this conversation with chromers. When they saw I had some idea about polishing, they offered to work with me. 2 of them told me if I brought them a few small pieces they would strip the chrome for free and give them back, so I could try buffing them. If the experiment worked they would chrome the parts for half price. You could talk to the guys, even better take a couple of small parts and polish them up. Show them your work and see what they say. Buffing and polishing is the hardest part of the job. Most guys would just as soon not do it. (2) You can buy an outfit from Caswell and do your own chrome plating. At least the small parts. I know a guy who has one of their outfits and is quite pleased with the results. (3) "tea kettle chrome" is what one guy calls the cheap plating on kitchen furniture and the like. When they do that kind of plating they do not polish, they do not copper plate. The work gets a quick dip in the nickel plating tank and an even quicker dip in the chrome tank. It looks all right for what it is, but no where near a real chrome job. Leave it outside for a few months and it will be a mass of rust.
It's great to showcase your very nice work done there in Latvia, however looking at pretty pictures from there doesn't do us a lot of good here.
Yes, USA is far away, but but mine friend from Latvia make parts for USA car restorators It sounds crazy, but this is fact and quality is much better than in USA and for +/- same price including shipping!
I'd be afraid to ship parts to Latvia, the cost would be big and I'd be wondering if I would ever see them again. Lost in shipping etc.
There is many other ways to do that! Ok, it not very good for bumper shipping, but for medium parts and potmetal parts it is OK!
This is Mercedes Benz 190 SL full set of bumpers and clicks plated in Latvia, perfect quality for shows!
If you lived near me I have heaps of Stainless Steel trim parts including some S/S Radiator shells that need buffing and polishing
Eons ago when chrome pricing was getting crazy, the word in the street was that the biggest factor in pricing was the cost of disposing of the highly toxic chemicals (EPA rules). About that time a guy in San Diego started advertising really cheap chrome and even quoted prices for some of the more commonly plated parts. But he didn't last long when it was discovered he was taking his work across the border to Mexico. They plated cheap because at the end of the day they dumped their chemicals into the river. The work was apparently very good. This posed a moral dilemma. So it would be interesting hear from a chrome shop whether there are any new and cheaper processes for "neutralizing" (if that's a word) the toxicity of the chemicals. And this leaves me wondering what to think about Latvia.
I am sure the cost of disposing the chemicals is a factor but I would guess the bigger factor is cars don't have chrome on them any more that needs redoing so there is a much smaller customer base to try and support the industry. Bumper shops now repair plastic they don't chrome plate.
Many, many years ago the chrome shop I used was a production shop. They plated zillions of pieces for various area manufacturing companies. I saw push carts filled with racks of small parts. They could not give us dates. They would fit our work into their schedule as best they could. Don't know if the industry is still like that. If that shop is still around they're surely not getting much car work. Don't know whether manufacturers are reducing chrome because of costs. That would hit them much harder than less car work.
I stopped by Fairmont plating this morning. The signs on some of the vehicles etc. say Fairmont plating or Edmonton electroplating. I was told that those 2 businesses no longer exist and that they are now known as Edmonton bumper recycling. There is a guy there named Roger who looks after the plating that they still do. He said that they don't do the triple plating using the copper anymore because it is too expensive and labor intensive and most people don't want to pay the cost. So much for that idea, not sure what I will do now, where in hell can I get some good chrome work done ??
I had some stuff done by Supreme Plating years ago and it turned out nice not sure what it is like now. I have also heard the Alberta Plating in Calgary does nice work but I have also heard varying accounts about their reliability. I am about to start looking as well so if you find anything let me know.
Sure, you do the same. I have been referred to a place in Toronto called The Plating house. I'm going to ask them for a quote. I tried to contact Mayfair plating in Toronto, apparently they did all the chrome for Jeff Norwell's "Dads 32- 5 window" ( the build thread I can't find.) I tried to get them to give me a quote but they said they didn't want to do the work They suggested The Plating house..
Wow!! add the shipping and holy crap!!! US dollar worth Euro .89 cents. That would be US about $660 for the bumper, I would guess $200 at least each way shipping. Way too rich for the cool guy!!
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