Removing chrome plating

I am pretty sure there is, but you probably need to take your part to a plater. I was told by a plater he could dip it in something and it would remove the chrome and leave the nickel under the chrome. I don't think you could do it yourself easily. There is just a very,very thin layer of chrome on the chromed part. They only put the part to be chrome plated in the chrome plating tank for 20 or 30 seconds I believe.
 
Your local plater will be able to do that for you. It is basically reverse plating. I had a number of parts nickel plated for my '29 Murray and, when I took delivery, the parts just didn't look "right". The plater apologized for his mistake, took the part to a vat, hooked up a wire to each part and dipped the part in the vat for only a few seconds. The parts looked correct when they came out of the solution. He had removed the chrome in a flash. Gar Williams
 
There's two ways, one is to immerse the part in hydrocloric acid, the problem is if there is a spot where there is no nickel then you run the risk of etching the metal underneath. Some metals don't react with the acid while others do. The second way is to place the part into a caustic soda solution and make the part the anode, apply power and strip the chrome, the cathodes used are carbon. This is the normal way a plating shop strips chrome off steel parts.
 
If the original plating was trippled plated ie. copper, nickle, then chrome, the plater can remove the chrome without any damage to the nickel .

Ron
 
If the part is a repro potmetal door handle or window crank, the part will disapear even quicker than the chrome, when dipped into muriatic acid.
 
Thanks to all for your replies.
I have some original tire valve stem hardwear that has been chrome plated and would like to remove the chrome without removing the nickle if possible.
Jim
 
Midwest Tin said:
Thanks to all for your replies.
I have some original tire valve stem hardwear that has been chrome plated and would like to remove the chrome without removing the nickle if possible.
Jim
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I had a chrome speedometer bezel and used muriatic acid. In just a minute or so it was covered in black goo, which I quickly rinsed off in hot water and had a perfect nickel plated bezel.
 
The problem you may find is when a part is chrome plated the nickel is not plated thickly as it would be done if the nickel plating was to be the finished job.
 
J Franklin said:
The problem you may find is when a part is chrome plated the nickel is not plated thickly as it would be done if the nickel plating was to be the finished job.
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The thickness of the nickel should be the same if it was plated to any sort of standard. The problem will be that bright nickel is used under chrome and to get bright nickel, oxides are added as brighteners. When the chrome is removed, the nickel will tarnish quicker than if buffed non-bright nickel is used. The chrome protects the bright nickel from tarnishing.
 
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