I am in the process of restoring an old British bike for someone and I have never ran across this problem before so maybe some of you may have had experience with this before. The fenders on this bike were originally painted but some where along the line someone decided to chrome them. along with a few other parts that were not chromed originally. I sent the parts out to a chrome shop who has a pretty good reputation to have them stripped back to bare metal. All of the pieces came back stripped down to bare steel or aluminum with the exception of the front fender. So when I called the chromer today he explained to me that A: if he were to strip the copper plating off of the fender it would pretty much destroy the steel. I have had parts stripped before that came back bare steel so is this something new maybe environmentally safe chemicals etc. or is someone blowing smoke? B: When I told the chrome shop I wanted to paint the fender which was my whole purpose of having it stripped in the first place they told me that you can paint over copper and most likely wouldn't even need a self etching primer. Again does this sound plausible if so what primer should I use? Thanks for you help in advance.
Copper is the bondo or primer that gets applied before chrome (nickel etc.). Maybe the base metal is so bad he worried that removing the copper would leave a badly pitted or otherwise damaged fender. Powdercoat it and prep it for paint. No issues, problems solved.
If your really worried about it you can probably sand it off with a DA if alls that is left is the copper.
I had that on my royal enfield but applys to cars as well. No problem with painting it. Like any metal you have to fresh sand it and coat it within 1/2 hour before oxidation sets in.Try not to handle it with bare hands or degrease before you prime it with a thin coat of self etching primer or a thin coat of zinc chromate primer from rattle can and top it with a quality 2 part primer. You can see the copper on the headlite in the pic. I also paited the handle bars to. Just sanded the cheap chrome off.
Your plater is being both knowledgable and truthful. There is no electrochemical way I know of that will safely strip a heavy copper plate from steel, without stripping the steel itself. It has nothing to do with environmental restrictions either. In my experiance, improper stripping procedure causes more part damage than any other in the custom plating world. There is a reason the plater has a good reputation if they know their limits with stripping. An electrified sulfuric solution will strip chrome and nickel, and a small bit of copper. That's most likely what he used. It's what we use. Even when within perfect specifications it can eat steel and potmetal if left in too long. The only way I know of that effectively strips copper is Nitric acid, but it will eat every commonly plated metal other than aluminum. It doesn't even need electrolysis. If the plating is in good shape, the nickel layer can be scuffed and painted over. The copper should be no different.
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