Electroless Nickel plating?

Nickel is part of the process of high end chrome plating. Triple plating is what it is referred to as. copper, nickel, chrome.

 

I used electroless nickle on my fabbed intakes in the late '70s and early '80s. Because it was a lot cheaper than chrome. Now I send stuff out for cermac or powder coating

 

I want to know if its something I can do at home. I have found techniques for doing copper electroplating that is pretty simple. I have some painted gauge bezels I want to strip and plate nickel

 

Jeff, my dad is/was a chemist. If you want to know about plating. Gimme a call.

 

Here ya go, everything for the home plater
http://caswellplating.com/kits/electroless.htm

 

I've restored a couple of really early motorcycles, (pre 1920) and all they had was nickel back then.

it's pretty good stuff... the prep work is key. it seems to hold up fairly well, but it requires alot more work than chrome, to keep nice. It likes to tarnish and dull easily.

I like the look of it though. I had my guy do some pulleys and little junk for me. It has that cool yellow hue to it. Old Timey, haha.

 

One of the reasons racecar builders use it,is it doesn't hide cracks if they develope, like chrome does.Years ago i worked on a roadrace car,that had lots of suspension pieces nickel plated,as chrome wasn't allowed.

 

Electroless nickel plating and regular old dip plating are two totally different animals. Regular nickel plating is beautiful, IMHO...my truck windshild frame is nickel. The good old dipped nickel has the yellowed look to it, whereas....

Electroless has a totally different look to it. The best description I can think of is it looks a lot like the hard chrome on a shock shaft. I used to use a lot of it when I worked in the motion control industry. It def has that "industrial" look to it, even when it's a bright as possible. It is a neat look, and has some great applications, as long as you're aware that your parts won't look anything like dipped nickel. Typically more of a pure silver color, think shopping cart.

If you wanted to go the electroless route, I wouldn't even bother with a home kit. There are TONS of places that do electroless for industry, and it's dirt cheap compared to dipping. Key is to call around and explain your needs, find a car sympathetic guy that will run your few parts in with big batches from an industrial customer.

 

I have it on my knock off hubs.

One big advantage is that it builds evenly over the surface and not more on corners. It pretty easy to mess up a thread with electroplating.

 

The reason for this is with electroplating the CHARGE is attacking from two directions. So a corner or thread winds up with a lump of plating on the edge. I forget the chemical used for electroless nickel, but it looks like green cool-aid.

 

I believe there is/was a theory that Chrome plating can cause hydrogen embrittlement of weldments. I remember back in the 60s or 70s there was a lot of discussion concerning chome plated roll cages and even some associations went as far as to ban them. I don't know if this was ever proven or resolved and the concerns seemed to have gone away(?) Most flat track m/c frames that are plated are nickle plated but I don't know if that is the reason. A friend of mine that raced f/t bikes back in the 70s once told me that nickle plating was more resistant to the calcium, used to prep dirt tracks, than chrome but I don't know that as fact.