Rechroming Question

R

RyanB

Member
I have a bunch of parts for my 1929 coupe that I want to rechrome and was wondering if anyone had advice on a reputable person around Utah. It is a late 1929 model so am I correct in chrome? My main concerns are the headlights and radiator shell that are are in bad shape but are original to the car and I want to keep them on the car.
 
Headlights and shell should be nickel plated, as well as the tail light housing. The dash instrument panel and shift lever s.b. nickel plated with a satin finish, as should the lower part of your emergency brake. I'm not completely skookum on all the different parts and finishes, because I'm not a judge, for one thing, but I can say that most of the plating on the 28-29 coupes was nickel, not chrome. Only the bumpers were chrome. There are a whole bunch of particulars on plating described in The Judging Standards from MARC/MAFCA, and it would be a good investment to purchase that book.

Spend some time with your plater to explain exactly what you want and what you expect. I've had plater ruin good original things because their workers were not aware of my expectations (my fault as much as theirs). And have a lot of money.
 
I should add a little to what Ray said above. I have had several shells renickeled at about $500 a pop which is about average. The plater in Wisconsin did an excellent job. However, if the shell or headlights have a lot of peeling nickel, the metal rusts under the plating and causes pitting. I have had one plater that tell me it would be very expensive to plate the shell that was fairly pitted. The shell looked great as far as lack of dents and any damage. I think it could only be used for a truck since the rust pits could be filled with high build primer and painted black. I would advise you to carefully check out any plater that you plan to use to make sure he does a good job. Don't ask me why I mentioned that.
Hope this helps.
Rusty Nelson
 
And I'll add a couple comments to Rusty's observations. A large part of the cost is prep. If you have a badly pitted item, it can be plated smooth, but requires multiple platings of copper and then working it down. This is almost a lost art, at least in my area. One of the casualties of this, and potentially any plating, is the loss of sharp edges and details, such as the stampings in the tops of the headlights. Again, a good discussion with your plater will be a worthwhile time investment.
 
Thanks for the information. I might consider buying a reproduction shell for the time being and just have the headlights done.
 
I wrote this many moon ago:

Plating A parts

Quick few thoughts

Do you want the parts to look pretty or be functional and properly plated? Some shops are good at making parts look pretty.

The bright nickel process is cheaper, but may result in a more frequent (like yearly) need to re-polish the parts. Many shops do not have a dull nickel tank.

Directions are nice, find out first if you need to have them done in Spanish. I am not making a joke or political commentary- just stating a fact. Some shops have found a lower cost high quality labor pool to keep the costs down. I had joked about this to a large plater in a discussion and he did not think this would be a bad idea.

And last...
Opinions of the shop quality vary. What I consider great plating may be what you consider trash. I have seen more than one person love the plating work of a shop on something I considered ruined due to a total loss of detail.
 
I do not know if Steve has found another plater to replace the one they were using that decided to retire. I know they have one that will do gearshift levers and bumpers, but last I knew he was not doing much else. Definately worth the call to find out. Rod
 
Interested in this thread as I also have parts that are in need of replateing. I understand that original is best, but are there any/some repo parts and which ones that come close to the fit and quality of originals. I plan to replate my headlamps and grill shell when the time comes but for bumpers and instrument panel I planned to buy repo. And then I see where Berts accepts your originals bumpers as a core or replates yours.
 
lance leblanc said:
Interested in this thread as I also have parts that are in need of replateing. I understand that original is best, but are there any/some repo parts and which ones that come close to the fit and quality of originals. I plan to replate my headlamps and grill shell when the time comes but for bumpers and instrument panel I planned to buy repo. And then I see where Berts accepts your originals bumpers as a core or replates yours.
Click to expand...

Repro instrument panels don't fit right.
Let Bert's replate your original parts.
 
RyanB said:
Thanks for the information. I might consider buying a reproduction shell for the time being and just have the headlights done.
Click to expand...

Be aware that the repro shells, at least all the ones I have seen, are actually early 1928 style. That means the headlight conduit holes are smaller than the later Two-Lite shells, and therefore have to be enlarged if you are using the Two-Lite style headlights, and the emboss around the crank hole is different. They are also not shaped right, and are chrome plated.

There may be a better repro out there than I have described, but this is my experience.
 
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