Correct chrome plating for vehicle restoration is expensive because of the work involved and because of anti pollution laws. It can be very difficult to find someone who does a good job at any price.

The original plating has to be stripped off of first and if not done very carefully can etch the underlying steel very badly. The steel then has to be polished and cleaned. If the polisher is too heavy handed he can create a lot of damage. Light parts can be warped by the heat and writing stamped into parts totally eliminated. I had a chrome external flywheel from a vintage Moto Guzzi re-chromed at one time and despite careful instruction the arrow timing mark stamped into the flywheel quite deeply was polished away. Fortunately a trace remained so I was able to have it etched in by a dye maker. The flywheel then had to be re-chromed yet again.

When done correctly a layer of copper in then plated on to the steel. This layer is then buffed and cleaned. Following that there may be one or two layers of nickel applied followed by the final chrome plating. All of these layers may be plated to a thickness to achieve the desired durability.

Stainless steel gives excellent results but does not have the same bright quality of really good chrome work.

Peter

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