migrating to nickle

Ron in Quincy said:
It is my understanding the old Nickel was not a electro-plating process, it came out dull. That is why the original front bumpers are dull on the edges and back; the nickel was polished on the face before Chrome-plating the bumpers. If you Chrome on a dull surface it does not shine. The new Nickel plating is a electro-plating process, it therefore comes out bright and does not have to be polished.
Years ago I had some 28 headlights done; the Platter, when I went to pick up the headlights said he did not remember if I wanted them Nickel or Chrome so he had chromed them, he said no problem, put the headlights in a tank, it removed the chrome but did not damage the Nickel. This Platter always tripled plated, Polish, Copper, polish, Nickel, then Chrome if that is what the customer wanted.
Until the EPA got involved, back in the 60's we could get the front and rear bumpers, headlights, taillight, and radiator shell plated for a total cost of $125.00. The last front bumper I had plated, just the two bars, cost me $200.00.

Times have changed !!!!!!!

Ron
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Both are electroplating processes.
The earlier nickel plating is just a basic nickel solution without brightening additives. It requires polishing after plating, but because there are no oxide based brighteners, takes a lot longer to tarnish in free air.
The later bright nickel that is under chrome has additives in the tank, which are oxide compounds. These add some stress to the nickel and level the surface as more is plated. The chrome that is plated on top, stops the nickel from tarnishing in free air.
Chrome over a dull surface can be polished to a shine if the chrome is plated thick enough. We did this occasionally on some motorcyle parts, mainly nuts and bolt heads, where the application of a spanner would crack the nickel underneath, causing the plating to flake off. This is essentially hard chrome instead of decorative chrome, but the only difference between the two is the thickness. Both are plated from a tank of the same solution. We had two separate tanks in our workshop, as the hard chrome was for aircraft parts, and needed to be a contaminate free solution, whereas the decorative chrome tank had less stringent control for contamination, mainly nickel drag out from the previous process. We had two rinse tanks between the decorative nickel and decorative chrome, but there would be a slight contamination.
 
seems I've read on my coal forum that nickel plating for indoor use was a 1 step process & outdoor use like on cars was copper,nickel over steel.my 100+ year old stove has some rust&some worn areas with no sign of copper underneath. tom
 

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bambooboy said:
seems I've read on my coal forum that nickel plating for indoor use was a 1 step process & outdoor use like on cars was copper,nickel over steel.my 100+ year old stove has some rust&some worn areas with no sign of copper underneath. tom
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It's has been my belief that the copper was added to "level" and polish the piece, as it is easier to polish copper than steel? :confused:
 
Mike V. Florida said:
It's has been my belief that the copper was added to "level" and polish the piece, as it is easier to polish copper than steel? :confused:
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That's correct Mike. The process is a cyanide copper flash, then a build up of acid copper. Then polish, and if you break through to the base metal, another round of cyanide copper, acid copper and polish. Once the copper is polished, into the nickel tank.
The cyanide copper is used as an acid based copper tank will give an immersion coat of copper onto steel before plating begins, and will have virtually no adhesion.
 
Guys,

Be serious about this please. All the repro parts are chrome. I dearly want them nickle. So what is the proces to remove the chrome ? I have my headlights done nickle in Slowakia, but all the rest ... Dash, doorhandles etc. Need to be stripped from the chrome layer.

What is a professional,way ?

Deaply involved,

Henk
 
I stripped the chrome off a speedometer bezel by brushing on muriatic acid for two minutes, then rinsing in warm water. It worked great, but when I tried the same thing on 4 window cranks the acid ate the metal, as there was no nickel under the chrome.
 
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