Hot Rods I guess I am living in the 80’s (chrome prices)

I got a couple of different quotes from chrome vendors to plate a set of early Caddy valve covers. I was quite shocked. $750-800!

Admittedly, the last stuff I got chromed was back in the 80’s.

I guess I need to get out more. Looks like I need to start researching plating at home. My dad was a chemist for years. He specialized in plating.

 

I understand your pain, I got the same kind of pricing, and my response was "No, I only want a pair of valve covers plated, not a half dozen!" to which the shop owner said "you can thank the EPA for the prices"....and I pretty sure he's right.

 

A friend of mine was going to do it a few years ago. He mainly got into it because someone had the whole bunch of stuff for free, they wanted it out of the garage as the guy had died. Tanks, electric power unit, and several buckets of chemicals. He did some research, and found that nickel is probably doable at home, but chrome puts out lots of dangerous gases, so, he never did anything. Now, he is dead, and the same deal can be had from his widow. about 800 miles from OK, but free !!

 

Get an estimate on a roof. In 25 years the cost went up by a factor of 4. I actually think most old car parts are fairly reasonable. However, my internal estimates (what I think things should cost) are probably based on the 70's.

 

This is ChromeplaterJosh's kin. I cannot say enough nice things about them.

Custom Metal Finishing - Chrome - Cambridge City, IN (chromeplatingin.com)

-Abone.

 

Back in the mid 70's I built a '57 Nomad and re chromed all of the front and rear. Chrome City shop (not the plant) was just down the street from me. I had no money back then but I didn't pay a lot for the chrome work. Couple hundred bucks. One Day Paint and Body two tone was $160. Complete interior $400.
Sure can't come anywhere near that these days!

 

Whats your Nomad worth then and now.

 

I used to work at a chrome shop, and I will say that valve covers and oil pans were some of our least favorite parts to chrome plate and always got an extra charge. A lot of oil pans and valve covers have an internal baffle that has to be removed to do the plating (unless they're brand new) because you can never be sure it's perfectly clean behind them and you won't risk ruining a tank of incredibly expensive plating chemicals over something like that.

Another issue was with prep on stamped sheetmetal like that. A casting can be ground and polished on the surface without too much worry about making it too thin, but sheetmetal can, especially if you want to smooth out the draw marks from stamping or if there is any pitting. Lettering (like on valve covers) is also easy to lose the definition of if you buff it or sand it too aggressively, meaning lots of tedious sanding time around lettering.

Lastly is the way plating works, with an anode and cathode, is that plating doesn't cover evenly on a part. Deep things like wheels and stamped stuff (again, valve covers and oil pans) are hard to get the plating even on. That's why on cheap chrome valve covers, the inside corner of the sealing edge is always super thin (almost gold hued) and is generally the first spot to get rusty. Factory produced chrome pieces like that have a special tank with the anodes positioned just right for maximum coverage, but that's for a huge run of parts. Figuring that out for an individual pair of covers is a ton of work.

 

I just finished with my 49 Buick. Talk about sticker shock. I'm too embarrassed to say what my total bill was. My plater recently started charging $100 per hour for his shop's work. His cost of labor, chemicals, chemical disposal, materials, etc has gone up and up. I will be building cars with su statically less chrome going forward but I just had to do this Buick.

 

Everything has gone up of course, but chrome has been a little silly price-wise for a long time. I think the EPA comment is likely pretty accurate.

ironandsteele.com​

 

I've done nickel plating at home, interesting, not a Caswell kit. Variable power supply is the biggest thing needed to get started, hooking up a battery charger won't get it done. Learning how to make the solutions is next.

Cost of chrome, doing a frame off currently that's not progressing quickly, I'm appreciating worn paint and chrome cars more and more. Just drive it.

 

Those look better painted gold anyway.

 

My good old days, when assembling a new Midget chassis in 1978, front axle, steering arms, all radius rods, tie rod, drag link, bumpers, kick outs, header, pipe, all driveline pieces, pedals and many misc small pieces, total price $350. cash and a bottle of scotch. 1980 another new chassis, similar amount of pieces, this car had many aluminum pieces, had them all polished, steel parts chrome, same shop $750. cash and the scotch. 1981 This chassis got tore up, took the 2 new bumpers, 1 kick out, $1200 , no scotch, new owner, and a crappy job, that ended the chrome on my racers. The Sprint cars have so many aluminum parts, did not polish them anymore, the steel pieces we had gold iridite, as the engine, tire bill was a killer to say the least. I needed a chrome rear bumper for my 51 Merc, $ 1500 + a few years ago, the going price. I'm old, we bought complete nice used cars for $1500. Now when I see a 32/34 HighBoy all chrome and polished stainless, I appreciate what that's worth today though I see these cars priced right IMO. A good chrome job, copper/nickel/chrome with proper polish/repair before plating has gotten completely out of line, again IMO. I regress, I'm old, today is the good old days for today's youngsters, I remember Dad my shaking his head at prices, Yikes !, I've turned into my Dad, LOL.

 

Peeping chrome is a tedious, time consuming job that gets lost somehow in the discussion

 

My M/T aluminum valve covers on my BBC motor are getting dull. Again. Tired of the cleaning and polishing them. Wish I could get the factory tin ones chrome plated.

“What! How much? You have to be shittin’ me?”

Love that old school dull finish. . .

 

Before he passed I used to tell Pops all the time "You're stuck in the 70's" not only with his ideas on pricing but also finding anyone that actually wants to and has the knowledge to mess w this old junk.

 

Have them powder coated. That's what my buddy did with his Edelbrock Buick Covers.

 

I bought it for $700 sort of running. After I finished it I traded it for a very nice rebuilt '55 Chev 2dr HT. I sold that to buy a $350 needing everything but body work '55 Chev convert.
If we all had the ability to keep all our cars!
The Nomad had a 327 4bbl w/powerglide. With the stock 10gal tank you didn't go very far but it went pretty fast!

 

Not related to having valve covers plated but can put in perspective on why it costs so much for plating for some of these high end builds.
We would ship the major chrome pieces to the plater to be stripped. Bumpers, grills, taillight housings, headlight rings, pot metal parts…
We would fit and repair/modify the trim during the metal work stage.
Some of those would be shipped back and copper plated, shipped back to us and goof balls like me would file em straight. We also fit them during the body work and priming stages. After we were pleased with the fit, the trim was sent back and plated.
When ya see perfect fitting trim pieces on a car, think about the process that took.

you guys that live close to a plater are lucky.

 

Guess I'm living in the past also, tho maybe as far back as some others on here. Went to the local chrome shop to get four 40 ford bumperets plated. Let me start with purchase add on here, "driver quality". Decent shine no big gashes, as advertised. $200.00 said the counterman and two weeks. I choked, and said ok. After all they were for my 40. Two weeks later, another two weeks, he wasn't happy with the finish, ok, what could I say. Calls me when they are done, unwrap the paper, and they are bitchen, just like we all remember chrome parts should be. Like most shops, he does the repair and polishing and the plating is done else where. The delay was due to something on the backside that lifted the finish so he sent them back and had them redone. Checked another well used shop here local and to do a 40 bumper, a straight bumper I might add, $300.00. Not sure if thats reasonable or not.

 

I love the look of chrome script valve covers, but this may change my mind about nicely painted and striped covers.

 

I had fun doing nickel plating at home, with nickel acetate. Everything available from the hardware store (99% Nickel welding rods).
Old DC power supply, do copper acetate plating for copper first to give the nickel a surface to adhere to.

Either way, nickel acetate and copper II acetate are naaaasty chemicals (toxic).

But, for small things, eminently doable. I was plating screw heads and other little niknaks (turn signal reflectors etc).

Phil

 

Correct, and not just tedious and time consuming, but extremely skilled when it comes to delicate, detailed stuff.

The shop I used to work at has done several 1930's era hood ornaments that had already been redone by other shops. The other places got all of the pitting out but they also lost all of the details. I know they have had to carve some of the fine details back into the parts after they've been washed-out by too much sanding and buffing. One ornament that had wings on it with bird-like feathers, I think the restoration price got into the thousands, and that's re-doing someone else's work.

I bought all of the Appleton 112 spotlights from BobK's estate and he had a couple housings that had been rechromed but he wasn't able to use, one had the lettering buffed over and it look smeared, another one was prepped around the lettering but then that area stood out from not being buffed enough. It takes a lot of skill to do something like that just right. That's a big part of why some of that stuff sells for tons of cash when it's really nice.

 

Just got my grille done for my 52 merc pickup $1100 canadian

 

pic in my album

 

Try some '41 Cadillac Bumpers with guards!!!!!! I didnt go out for lunch for maybe a month, haha! Actually it was during Early Covid, so no going out for nothing.

In day and age, it seems to be better to price out old chromed or already chromed replacements. That is if the item is common.

 

Krobe would agree with ya!

 

That’s the exact intake and valve covers I have.

 

A good striper can do rocker arm cover script in silver leaf with a thin pinstripe around the leaf and make it look better that chrome to me.