So often I get pieces sent in for chroming or rechrome that aren't really suitable for chroming for various reasons. The biggest and most common problems are the 90 degree angle and the compound angle. So I decided to offer a little advice and alternatives, and how we get over it. Electroplating performs almost opposite to painted finishes in how it covers. High spots ( areas closest to anodes) plate thicker, valleys and corners plate thinner. Basically if you roll a 3/4 ball bearing into a corner, anywhere it cannot touch will not plate with chrome. nickel and copper coverage in these areas will also be thin. Holes will plate normally to a depth of between 1/2 and 1 and1/2 times there diameter. So a 1/2" hole will emmersion plate anywhere between 1/4 and 3/4" Depending on it's exposure to the anodes. Wheels with reversed hubs are terrible for a custom shop to plate and require specialised racks and auxilliary anodes. So plating job will for various reasons not always be perfect. Plating shops can often get over the problems with auxilliary anodes, robbers and other tricks. Sometimes they can't. If you look at any older chrome wheel, the area where hub meets rim will on a quality wheel be yellowish. That's the nickel where the chrome didn't plate. If it's not yellow it's probably rusted. That's where insufficent nickel plated too. How do we get over it? Well, you only send wheels to shops that specialise in them or at least are established with the right racks and auxilliary anodes to be able to do them. You break down where ever possible any brackets into individual pieces, or where brackets are welded, fill in right angles with lead free solder or braize until the 3/4 ball can touch it all, or at least get close. You use alternative finishes. Yes I said alternative finishes. Quality paints, alodines, ceramics, powdercoats, anodizing, electroless plating, whatever. some of the ceramic coatings around today are now very, very chromelike. The better the prep the better the finish. Many are polishable to a very good standard. They may not look quite as good as chrome, but can be damned close, and they don't have the same limitations. How closely do you need to scrutinize and is all over consistant better than magnificent in places? The piece that brought this post about is actually a Harley light bar that is spot welded and has a no plate are that can be avoided. The first option being to plate all three pieces individually and bolt it together with tasty looking bolts. That means busting it apart and drilling which if it were mine I'd do. The second option, what I will have to do, is to braize over the joints and plate it with higher amps and a couple of robbers. The third option is of course a different coating. A lot of you guys are fabricating pieces. Consider your finish and any problems you might encounter before you join it together. you might decide to join it differently. Oh, and stainless? No don't plate it. Polish it. Before you weld it !! It's easier to remove the bluing from the weld than it is to polish out a corner.
That's interesting, and something I'd never heard until just recently. I just had a set of 16" Early Ford wheels chromed, and they came out really nice except for the spots where the rim meets the wheel center. It's a little 'yellow' in the cracks where they meet. I don't think the chrome really got down in those spots...but I'm not really worried about it because I'm not shooting for show points anyway. I'll keep your post in mind as I get the rest of my suspension parts ready for chrome.
I have not one piece of chrome on my entire 1930 Model A. Its all stainless. One thing I can tell you about re-chroming. Make darn sure they zinc dip your parts first. If not, you may find the chrome flaking after 2-5 years, depending on the climate.
As always Polisher, good info. I've heard of the same type of problems with powdercoating. since it's electrostatically applied, it doesnt like cracks and crevases.
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