Where should I send my horn grills to get rechromed?

[wolfturbo]

Guys,

I have a few pairs of these (with cutouts) that need rechroming. Who is the Dalai Lama for this project? All leads appreciated. Thanks!

Wolf


P.S. I'm in So Cal.

[teescott]

Best I've found is Jon Wright's Customchrome Plating in Grafton, Ohio
440-926-3116
Expensive, but perfect "Pebble Beach" quality. Will be better than original.
They re-plated rear vent window hardware for me in their mid level quality choice for $180 per pair. These are pot metal pieces so they are more expensive to plate than steel. I'm not sure what the grills are made of.

[lilacrs]

I send my fine plating work to Queen City Plating located just north of Seattle. They were recommended my our local concours guys. They rechromed my horn grills 5 years ago for $300 for the pair. They also did amazing work restoring my Speedster dash script which was silver and gold plated just like the originial. Here's their website: http://www.queencityplating.com/

[NeunElf]

For what it's worth, the "four screw" grills used through roughly the middle of the '66 model year are brass--the grills after that are pot metal.

[wolfturbo]

So is the consensus that it is pretty difficult to replate the later pot metal grills? FYI, these are the two screw variety for my '70 911.

Thanks to all.

[NeunElf]

So is the consensus that it is pretty difficult to replate the later pot metal grills?

It's easier to get really good results with brass than with pot metal, but the folks who do chrome plating for old cars probably plate more pot metal than anything else.

The problem with the grills is that it's hard to polish them before plating, and it's the hand work that costs you.

I'm sure the folks who already responded got spectacular results, but those prices seem a little high. I take all my stuff to Verne's in Gardene, CA http://www.verneschromeplating.com/

[tom dance]

I've had very good luck with Carbon County Chrome in Stratford CT. They do REALLY great work, no compromises.
However for your grills I'd advise looking for another pair. It would definately be a much cheaper and quicker way to go. The prices quoted above seem about right for replating pot metal. You should be able to buy perfect ones for less than that. Hey I might even have a set somewhere. I'm sure someone here does.
Tom

[erick72pors]

What exactly is pot metal? What other sorts of the usual metal will you find on the cars that need to be chromed? How does the process of chrom plating really work? AND also, what makes quality chrome plating so expensive, afterall isn't it just dripping metal parts in a tub?

Erick

[NeunElf]

What exactly is pot metal? What other sorts of the usual metal will you find on the cars that need to be chromed? How does the process of chrom plating really work? AND also, what makes quality chrome plating so expensive, afterall isn't it just dripping metal parts in a tub?

Erick

I found this at Bartelby.com:

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

pot metal

NOUN: 1. A copper and lead alloy, formerly used in making plumbing fixtures. 2. A cast iron used especially in making pots. 3. An inexpensive alloy of poor quality, usually containing lead, used especially in making castings: cheap jewelery made from plated pot metal. 4a. Glass melted in a pot. b. Glass colored by being mixed with melted stained glass in a pot.


I think the stuff on cars we refer to as Pot Metal is really a zinc alloy.

Other things you might find plated with chrome on an old Porsche are steel and brass. I think some 356 "Hood Handles" may be chromed aluminum.

As to what happens after you drop the parts off at the platers:

They clean them, strip old layers (using lye and/or acid), then polish the parts.

It's the polishing that gets real expensive: it's a highly skilled job--a little too agressive with the polishing wheel and details are destroyed. I sort of figure a square inch of polishing for chrome is like a square foot of really great paint.

A problem with "pot metal" is that it can pit. Those pits can be filled in, individually, and that gets expensive.

Sometimes steel parts are hammered to remove dents. This is just like auto body work, but the steel's much thicker on most of these part and you can't use any fillers.

So, when the parts are fianlly repaired and polished, the plating starts. If you're getting triple chrome plating, the first layer is copper. The copper is sort of a primer, and it can fill small imperfections.

Next comes nickel--it's sort of the color coat.

Finally, there's the chrome, which is a pretty thin layer. It's a little analagous to clearcoat.


Don't forget that chrome plating businesses get lots of visits from the EPA, and process control and purity of the tanks is critical.

[Paul Schooley]

Ah yes...thus the ever decreasing number of chrome shops left in N America. I used to hit this dump in Buffalo, NY for all my Harley chroming. I'm sure the EPA had a field day with them. It was always a challenge smuggling those chrome parts and cheap wine back into Canada under the hood without damage to anything...lmao.