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

My thoughts about cheap chrome: on my 57 Chevy, I found a “great price” on re-chroming the rear bumper. Turns out the prep wasn’t very good. You could see scratches and dents under the chrome. EVERYBODY that looked at the car pointed that out. First of all, it was a driver, never intended as a show car. I should have ran the old original, rather than a poor re-chrome.

 

In 1960 I got everything I could unbolt from my Olds 303 (without removing the engine) chromed. Cost me 20 or 30 bucks. I was making $1.70 per hour.

 

Too glitzy? I didn't know that was even possible.

 

The shop I used mostly did chrome bumpers but would do whatever would fit in the bumper vat. Rubber bumpers killed that.

 

Good chrome ain't cheap and cheap chrome ain't good. That's my story and I'm sticking to it!

 

And the congregation says “Amen!”

 

"Chromed at last, chromed at last, Thank Gawd Almighty It's chromed at last!"

Send me those caddy covers and I'll run 'em down to Chrome Troy or you you can mail them to him direct and tell him you're the buddy I mentioned. I can't help the homelessness issue in America but I can assist with the chromelessness. It is my true calling.

This is the Bandit, I'm 10-10 on the side.

 

I avoid the hassle and cost......N.O.S is still out there......Sold a car recently with rechromed bumpers...that would of set the buyer back another 1200.00 at the chrome shop.....its cool when you buy a car and they come freshly chromed in wrapped brown paper......

 

I did 52 Cad headlight rings about 5 years ago and they were $250

 

With time not $,one could do kind of what I have always done,polish hell out of anything I could,and clear coat it! The newer clear coat now have amazing stay power n shin

 

When I was a kid, I was enamored with the glistening shine of chrome, the more the better............As I grew older and saw what many chrome parts looked like after a few years, my tastes changed and I learned to see the beauty of having just the right amount of chrome to provide accents for the complete assembly rather than dominate the assembly.
Maybe I just have an appreciation for the natural beauty of mechanical things rather than shiny things. Everyones tastes are different.

 

Ah, the thread is a 'in search of' not what is your personal preferences for engine coatings. Back when is supposed to be what this joint is. CHROME & POLISHING is just that. Finding a good quality fairly priced vendor is the main objective here. And it appears to be a success.

 

Back in the 60's I'd bought a 32 5W "project". I made one out of two. One of them had had all the garnishes and dash chromed. Previous owner worked at a plating shop and probably plated everything on his lunch hour or after hours a few at a time.
Paul in CT

 

Did you all eat paint chips as a kid? You can still get a bumper chrome'd here at my shop for $60! I get the chrome from Ecklers, see? Says it right on the can!

 

Please ship me 6 to Alaska. Thanks.

 

…….and a pack of cigarettes or a gallon of gas cost about two bits!

 

I used to work in chrome plating, not the show kind, with all the special containment and disposal, ventilation and health monitoring I couldn't imagine running an at home chrome business.

 

I wasn’t implying running a home business. Just plating small parts for myself.

 

how would a car need re-chromed when it was that new?

 

The EPA blame comments are misplaced.

Yes, there are regulations that have been put into place and that are enforced by the EPA.

They are there because there were far too many shops polluting the environment. Were they not doing this, there would have been no need to regulate.

 

No problem for them?

 

This is Boomsnub, an EPA superfund cleanup site here in Vancouver, WA. They have it pretty much cleaned up now. That green area is a plume of chromium contamination in the groundwater from Boomsnub, a former chrome shop. It seeped into the ground as far as 90 feet down, 30 feet of clay is all that separated it from the Troutdale Aquifer which is where we get our drinking water. The first picture was 1995, second in 2001. I love the shiny stuff but chrome responsibly.

 

I posted this below around 2004

My boss owned a very respected chrome shop in the 80s. He did a production run for a customer that required a certain chemical. After the run, he stored the chemical in a couple plastic barrels in the corner of the shop. The OSHA inspector said it was OK. A few weeks later, the EPA guy stopped in. He said it was stored "improperly" . Boss said, nothing has leaked? EPA said, we dont know that. Long story short, when the lawyers for the EPA got done my boss had to sign a swore statement he would NEVER operate a chrome shop again. They sued him for MILLIONS. He had to pay for soil sampling for several years. (sampling station is still there Ed.) He owed the government money for over a decade. Over something that "COULD" have been a spill.

 

I grew up a few hundred feet from what was later deemed a Superfund cleanup site.

The people that owned the old mill loaded it up with chemical waste, from basement to attic. All manner of things were in there, including Hexvalent Chromium (Chromium-6).

The wells to my home and primary school were contaminated.

I played in the brook, on the dam, and in the headraces of that mill. I skipped rocks downstream.

"Somehow" it caught fire, and burned to he ground. I remember the hellish flames shooting hundreds-of-feet into the night sky.

This was when I was a tiny child, and they have just recently finished cleaning it up, to where people can safely be on the land again, and that land can never be built on again. That's something like 43-years to get this resolved.

My life might be shortened over this. Some of my health issues may be from this. There is no way to know for sure. I'm not ok.

So, needless to say, I am not a-ok with sending chrome shops overseas, or across a border, to screw over other peoples kids.

Don't blame the EPA.

 

I'm not considered a chrome hog but there is nothing like it when it is judiciously placed.
Case in point and this is an example of the above statement, though these actually turned out brighter/shinier than the OEM version the shop buffed the copper coat too much and ruined the defined script lines of these valve covers.
They were plated at an unfamiliar shop which I had not held any prior line of communication with (important) so never make an assumption that all chrome shops are the same.

 

The Nomad was 17 years old. Believe it or not stuff in California does rust especially by the ocean.

 

17 really isnt that old, in comparison to it being old enough to retire now...

 

I understand but, it was old then.