Chrome plating...Holy crap!

Red · Post by **Red** » Thu Oct 21, 2004 8:39 pm

I sent some pics of the fender emblems for the 68 to a chromer for a quote. Boy! was I shocked 75-150 ....each! No pitting, some minor flaking I figured a sawbuck for both. any body know of some body reasonable?

Jeffc · Post by **Jeffc** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 2:56 am

Haven't priced a bumpers or grill replating as of late ether?
Plating prices have really gone up over the years
because they can't just dump the cemicals used
on, or into, the ground anymore (we have 2 super clean up
sites local to me, one of which is near a public
water well were the tank leaked and owner knew about it just didn't
care, the other they dumped it down a old well
for about 20 years, both were hard chrome outfits owned by the
same guy).

66patrick · Post by **66patrick** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 5:24 pm

The EPA has driven the cost of all types of plating, like everything else.. Thanks, US Government, for saving us from our selves yet again!

It's going to cost me over $700.00 to plate two bumpers and four bumper guards for my 1937 Hudson Terraplane brougham. The bumpers and guards are similar in size to my son's '46 Chevy truck. A buddy spent over $6K plating JUST the rear bumper assembly on his '57 Cadillac Biarritz ragtop!!! That's just crazy!

Red, when have you EVER been able to plate small parts for that cheap??? Maybe 1955???

Website · Post by **wideblock** » Fri Oct 22, 2004 10:37 pm

hey red, as an alternative, look into powder coating. they have a color i have used a lot on mirror bases and emblems, even the pie plates on my 66 called almost chrome metallic. it is a piant of such, powder coat, but when cured looks like highly polished aluminum, as close to chrome as youll get with the real thing. really dresses up old emblems or corroeded aluminum pieces and its waaaaaaaaaayyyy cheaper then chrome plateing. i saw an intake coated with this stuff, it looked just like the high polished ones in the magazine edelbrock offers, but it was a steel stocker.

Red · Post by **Red** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 6:16 pm

I didnt think about that, heck eastwood has a starter kit to get into powder coating. It aint cheap, but not to bad, could also mabye earn some extra cash with it. One of my other hobbies is pre-74 JD lawn tractors, They offer JD green. Parts have to cured in an oven though, i could start with small stuff, mmmmm, now you got me thinking

Website · Post by **wideblock** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 8:47 pm

thats what my guy does. he bought a restaraunt size over from a local auction and sprays the parts in his garage and bakes them in the big oven. he cant do a bumper, but a 15 inch wheel will fit, or an intake. im gonna have him so all the accesory brackets on my crews engine, and probably the intake as well. hes done my mirror stems in the past, and done my pie plates on the 66. even had the top of the 66's original air cleaner done in almost chrome to dress up the engine a bit. comes in handy if you or someone close can do it for you.

Post by **Goldie** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 5:19 pm

Red, haven't had too much plating done for a while, but a stock shift handle for a Mustang ' Hurst" from the factory no less, was over $100.00. It is only about 12-14" long, no pits, just needed redone. And if the stainless need polished, the guy I use charges $1 per foot and dents are extra. I know its tedious work and I can't do it as good as he does but come on!............Goldie

66patrick · Post by **66patrick** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 8:03 pm

If you're considering powder-coating steel wheels, forget it. I had four wheels on my since-tornado-demolished 1970 Ford F-250 done. After only two months on the truck, I noticed rust discoloration along where the rim and the center were welded together, and the powder-coating outfit I used said that happens on wheels. Nice to know, after I'd already spent $50/wheel!!! Powder coating ain't all that cheap, either!

Personally, I'd consider powder-coating hidden parts, like bumper brackets, seat frames and brackets, and the like. Doing vehicle frames is a huge expense and you run into the same problem there as you do with wheels; where you have two pieces of metal meet that are welded, you're going to experience rust discoloration, no matter how good the guy coats it.

A good painter is hard to beat on non-plated parts!

Website · Post by **wideblock** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 1:28 am

the only way you will get rust discoloration is if it wasnt fully removed before coating in the first place. rust needs air to grow, the powder coat seals the surface, so if it didnt have any rust when coated, it wont get any rust untill the coating is damaged. sounds like your coater was making excuses. 99% of the new steel wheels on the market that arent chrome are powder coated. they last years with out any problems

66patrick · Post by **66patrick** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 7:04 pm

Every steel wheel that's been powder-coated that I've ever seen that was NOT done as a new wheel have had the discoloration. I know I'd never do another wheel again unless it was a new wheel. Powder-coating a used wheel is a waste of money. Paint it.

Post by **oneowner71** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 11:23 am

when i took mine to get redone, the guy was actually up front about it. Said he couldn't gaurantee chrome would even stick at the welds, let alone not rust, and he wouldn't powdercoat either... he agreed, paint em, or get new ones. Paint has held up pretty good for the last 7 years though.

MoparDude427 · Post by **MoparDude427** » Tue Nov 02, 2004 1:14 pm

there is another kind of plating that i've used on some little things called cerma chrome. its not exactly like chrome (has a texture to the surface)but it looks good on little things under the hood. i did the hood hinges and springs and the tailgate hinges and the headers on my 65 d100 utiline. its the same ceramic coating that they use a lot on headers. It's extremely durable, easy to keep shining, and a hell of a lot cheaper than chrome, plus when used on headers, they wont oxidize blue like chrome does from the heat.

OldDodges · Post by **OldDodges** » Wed Nov 03, 2004 4:35 pm

Yeah, my Dad just had some plating done a few weeks ago and it was around $900.00. Which was about $600.00 more then we expected. From that, I basically decided that the bumper for my D300 will just be powdercoated white when the time comes. Chroming has just gotten too expensive over the past few years, thanks to in part our government.

71Swept

thatoneguy · Post by **thatoneguy** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 10:03 pm

i can go to walmart and buy chrome paint for 1.95$ it might not last a mounth but it will only cost ya a hell of a less than 900$

Jeffc · Post by **Jeffc** » Fri Nov 05, 2004 10:48 pm

I would like to hear why someone would think that the price of chroming
is results of just gov regs?
If the owners of these companies would take proper care
of their waste ("our" waste also because we want the products)
in the frist place there would be no gov regs
and no tax payer cost of cleaning up after them when your
water gets that crap in it and your wife has misscarages
or your child has a birth defect because they drink that
water.... this is proven in humans, not just the lab tests,
what the effects of chormimun and the cemicals use in
the plating do....

66patrick · Post by **66patrick** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 10:13 am

The plating companies that were lazy and downright dangerous in the disposal of their chemicals ruined it for the average hobbist who is trying to put together a car or truck without costing millions of dollars. That's why all of your chrome oil pans, valve covers, and other dress-up parts come from Taiwan, Red China, and Malaysia these days. The EPA has stepped in and added so many regulations not only in the disposal of materials, but how they 're handled from start to finish, that the expense has put out of business the honest, law-abiding types that want to abide by these regulations, but can't because of the excessive costs. Like everything else governmentr gets involved with, the costs go up and the quality goes down. The last 50 years should be ample proof of that to you.

Jeffc · Post by **Jeffc** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 12:15 pm

Well said and you have made most of my point here,
if the industry would of, and could of, policed itself there
would have been no gov reg's, they didn't, so gov
stepped in, as they should of, and now we pay the price
of domestic production of these stuff. You are right
about the cost of the reg's the industry, but if the
industry had handled this stuff right it would have
cost almost the same from start to finsh, you
and I would only save maybe 10% on the finshed
product price because of how these
cem's need to be handled.
Be aware that the cost of overseas
production is lower only because the cems and
waste is not handled right and is most often just
dumped "were ever" like is was 30 years ago here.
If the waste was handled right overseas we
would not be paying much less than what it would
cost to make it in our county (the only real diffeance
would be labor cost).
I work in one of the more cem intensive industry's, paper,
(know people don't think about paper that way, but we
use a lot of toxic cems to brake down fiber and in cleaning)
and the stuff we use to just dump in the river or out our
smoke stacks was a horror, our industry, like many other companies
didn't care, now we do a much better job, not because we wanted
to police ourself or because it's the "right thing to do".......

66patrick · Post by **66patrick** » Sun Nov 07, 2004 9:22 pm

The biggest polluter in the United States today is the Federal Government. True.