Hi this may be a little long winded but i need some advise here and want to know what i should be expecting. I have had some bad experiences with a local plater. They are more industrial than a job shop and are not real car/hotrod friendly unless you know someone. I had a party one night and someone brought another person who worked there. We talked a little and I told of my previous bad experience ie: super bad quality, somewhat high price, and making promises they never kept, waited over 10 weeks, and ended up blasting the coating and painting the part anyway. This was 10 years ago and the person ***ures me she would make sure i got them back and i was "taken care of" So i give my parts to the other friend who brought the plating employee to the party. He has had several things plated really nice and really cheap there i ***ume because of his friend. This all took place 9 weeks ago. The employee no longer works there, the friend is on vacation he calls for me as they are through his buisness name. They say they havent started your parts yet but it is going to be $350. I call andtell them to stop i'll be down monday and get them or see what we are actualy doing here. The parts are a pair of lakes style headers two radiator support rods (model a) dropped straight axle hurst shifter handle I wanted basic dull nickel finish on everything The parts were brand new and i spent about 20 hours smoothing these parts out. They even commented how nice they will be when finished. And how they like it when people actualy take the time to prep parts correctly. So after all this #1 What is a reasonable time to wait. This is fill in work for them i expected a little wait #2 does this cost seem reasonable? #3 is nickel the way to go? #4 if they have not done them this weekend and i pull them out of there who would you recomend for nickel plating? Sorry for being long winded and i really appreciate any and all help. Thanks Tim
"the person ***ures me she would make sure i got them back and i was "taken care of" So i give my parts to the other friend who brought the plating employee to the party. He has had several things plated really nice and really cheap there i ***ume because of his friend. ..." A little late but don't do business with someone you meet at a party..... even if it's your party... and you get what you pay for....
they need to be polished like a mirror, even for a dull nickle. The headers will require set up time to place anodes all around the pipes, to get the plating to "throw" into the many surface angles. 350 to me, sounds real fair...depending on the finish you did of course. If they had to polish further, then I'd say it's well worth it. JMO
Thanks F&J The finish was as good as i could possibly get it on all parts i smoothed any rough spots with 80 grit flap wheels files and stones, sandblasted with 120 grit. da'd with 220. hand sanded with 220. then went over everything with 600 by hand. I had a ton of time into them. Monday will be 9 weeks i'm getting a little impatient at this point. I want to fire my motor off. Would you wait it out or find someone else? If i find someone else what should i expect for a timeframe? Thanks again Tim A little late but don't do business with someone you meet at a party..... even if it's your party... and you get what you pay for....[/QUOTE] Fenders I'm well aware you get what you pay for I was asking if it was a fair price. I have known both people for 20 plus years With no advise to offer regarding plating sarcasm is kinda pointless.
I would do a friendly toned, visit. "just to see how it's going". Use your gut from there. Bad vibe from the visit?, then maybe go elsewhere, but going to a new place, might be a long wait also. Chromeplaterjosh on hamb posted a timeframe for any job at his place. I just don't recall what it was, but at least 6 weeks at that time of year, whenever that was. Some platers get swamped at certain times of every year.
Yep i planned to be plenty friendly. I know they are busy as they do a ton of aerospace work for my shop mostly silver and copper. Thanks again!
Since I have had a lot of stuff done lately I would say the dollor amount is more than fair for those parts. Ask them politely to get a couple pieces done that you need. You might find that will work instead of asking for everything. It is very time consuming work and your not their only customer. Whether you have nickel or chrome done it still takes the same amount of time. The chrome tank is really only a few minutes compared to the rest of it. I used to work in a chrome shop when I was a kid and saw this stuff first hand so I know what I am talking about. I would give them another week or two to get it together and if not take your business somewhere else. Good luck thats all I got for ya!!
Well I stopped and chatted with the people at the platers. They are super nice and said the quote was actually for triple chrome plated. I am super stoked about the price now. They said they have enough to do a run of cash stuff and it should be a matter of days, probably tomorrow but no more than a week.
Typical plater. If you are sending stuff in for plating be sure you write up a complete, detailed inventory, photograph everything and get them to sign it. Otherwise you will never get all your stuff back and you may get somebody else's stuff.
$350 sounds cheap enough but I question the durability of nickel, I think the final chrome dip is what adds the durability. Maybe an expert will school us on this.
Nickle is only used to allow copper to stick (and to act ss a filler for further smoothing and polishing), which in turn allows chrome to stick. Nickles isn't tough at all, and polishing those parts is going to be a pain in the *** for someone used to doing the same old part 40 times a day.
1: Time is relative in these cases. I don't know how that later operates. A our place, typical turnaround has been over 10 weeks for about 2 years. The slow seasons haven't reallt happened in 3 yrs. Its all first, come, first serve. however there is a rush service available that has a guaranteed turnaround time in as little as one week. For instance, at $350, it would be 50% of total order (not including shipping) on top of the total order. So essentially, an additional $175 to pay a guy overtime to get the parts done in one week without moving the regular stuff back. 2: For true plate-only, the cost seems reasonable at $350. If additional polishing needs to be made, it would be more. I wouldn't be surprised if this industrial shop doesn't even have a polishing department able to work on such pieces, efficiently anyways. For $350 or less, they are not going to fabricate an auxiliary anode setup to get the plating to throw evenly over the irregularities of the parts. The good news is that nickel throws pretty well on its own and if applied thick enough and with proper maintenance the finish will last a very long time. Just be sure to keep recessed areas clean and sealed/waxed, because that is where the plating is the thinnest. 3: Nickel is a great finish if it has the look you want. Before chrome plating was perfected in the 1920's nickel was the finish of choice. Biggest negative is that it requires maintenance to keep shiny, as it will (dull oxidize) slowly. Biggest positive: you can buff it back up without fear of cutting through (***uming you don't go nuts on it or use sandpaper,) because it is much thicker than decorative chrome plating. I personally like the color too. I suggest a duplex nickel for ultimate durability. It is dull nickel with bright nickel on top It works against corrosion on a metallurgical level, lol. Since you want a dull nickel finish exposed, you would have to talk to the plater and go with their recommendation. they may do two layers of dull, or one extra thick layer of dull, or even dull/bright/dull if they can get proper adhesion of dull over bright. I have never messed with dull nickel so I do not know its intricacies. 4: We can nickel plate them. We don't have dull nickel, but can apply bright nickel. If I knew of the exact look you are going for, I would know if we can achieve it in-house. I hope that helps, Josh
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