I had my 28 Tudor grill shell finished in nickel the plater told me no problem, the process is the same as chrome except he would not add the chrome. He explained that the nickel is the base and the chrome is the clear coat. I would presume that copper was used prior to the nickel If nickel is kept out of harsh environments like a paint finish there is no reason to buff it. He advised to use window cleaner. So far it has remained very attractive
I will try see ’nickel only’ parts tomorrow. Chromeshop did not really understand the idea as they mean chrome came on the early 30’s and its way better. Copper under nickel = no problem. Question, is there several versions of nickel ? Found this beutiful model A in all black and some parts in nickel, well I like the tone.
Hello, We once lived in an area of salt infused air blowing onto the shore and inland every single day of the year. Just like clockwork, the afternoon brought in the dreaded salt air, fog, moisture of all kinds. If a car was parked outside for a number of days, it got attacked daily. If it was inside a garage with the door down and it got put inside before the afternoon event, well, you might get lucky. So, needless to say, everything rusts or at least gets started fast and the more it is still in the environment, the more chance that the surface rust turns into something worse. “Rust never sleeps” At the time, we had some old antique furniture and this “Hoosier” had a combination of oak and shiny chrome plating on all of the brackets, hinges, locks and handles. I had to clean and then attack it with Blue Coral Wax, Cl***ic Car Wax and hope that they were strong enough to ward off the afternoon salt air blasting by. Our windows were closed, but the slightest opening of the door, the fittings of old wooden frame ca*****t windows got slightly open, etc. It all led to the oncoming attack, even if we thought it was safe being closed daily. On one bright idea, I was told that nickel plating was a lot stronger warding off rust. Other purveyors of old furniture suggested nickel plating all of the exposed metal. So, we got them all plated and it was like night and day. The plating looked outstanding, and before we ***embled the whole piece of furniture, we put on some Cadillac Blue Coral Wax that has been a mainstay for all things chrome in our experience. Our cars went through the bi-weekly wash/wax with the addition of the Blue Coral and Cl***ic Car Wax to keep them shiny and clean. Jnaki When we moved on to the next house and different styles of furniture designs, the old Hoosier (nickel plated metal everything) went to another nice family that was just starting their adventures in antique Oak furniture. Their comment was that the shiny metal looked brand new. It was at least 10 years old in the nickel plating surfaces. Salt air or not… it was well protected and looked great. But, we were ready to move on to the next round of household design. Good nickel plating, good protective wax does a great job of keeping thing looking sharp and at attention. YRMV
It gets a slightly golden tone when hot, no chrome on this baby only nickel and stainless and of course black.
Interesting thread, most of the cost with plating is down to all the labour to polish the parts before hand. I had some items nickel plated for a job a while ago, it marked like crazy, hand prints were a nightmare, which I ***ume is why the chrome top coat was added in later years, as well as it being a strong finish Nickel does look very nice though
I've noticed a lot of the restorer YouTubers (the guys who find some rusty old piece of machinery and rebuild it) have been using home nickel plate setups in the last few years for small parts like fasteners. It looks pretty straightforward, and of course preparation of the part is key to getting good results.
The problem with nickel is that you need to keep after it, as it "dulls" real quick. Ford used nickel plating in 1928-1929 on Model A grill shells, headlights, door handles, taillights and other small parts and they always need to be polished to keep them looking good.
Different market in the US to Europe. Nickel plating was adopted first as a decorative finish after the br*** era as cosmetic upgrade as European prewar cars still had a lot more br*** and copper parts it was usually done on br*** parts. Later chrome took over, but nickel remained popular to protect unpainted steel suspension components on race cars etc. From a historic point if view nickel and chrome are two different eras so are not on the same car as a rule.
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