I have appleton 552's on my 51 Merc and the there are a couple of dings on them and the plating is wearing thin.I was wondering if there is anyone that restores them in the so-cal area and if it would be less expensive to restore or find a better pair?I've been looking for a mint set for along time and the prices seem out of sight for 552's or 112's.Thank you.
I have heard you have to be really careful having them rechromed as the chrome tends to "wash out" the logo.
Back when I was in rechroming thin/shallow logos are the worst when trying to restore a part. The best way to salvage them w/o losing the logo was to leave it alone during certain steps. If there is pitting around it then it most likely would have to stay there. To remove the pitting and save the logo would be tedious hours and more and more $. I would make sure you specify that you want the logo to remain no matter what. You should make sure its noted on the invoice so that if you go to pick it up and the logo is gone or blurred you have proof that it is in breach of the original agreement. If a shop is not willing to put it in writing search elsewhere if the logo is important to you. Jimmy - If you were willing to ship it out ChromePlaterJosh here on the Hamb would be able to take care of you. He is in Indiana.
I heard the same thing.It must be a ***** to restore them and keep the logo.Contact JarzenHotRods here on the HAMB.I know he had a set restored.
I'm having the same concerns. Can you p*** on any info you found out? I tried to PM jarzenhotrods with no success.
Here's a copy of the pm I got from jarzenhotrods.I hope it helps..<!-- / icon and ***le --><!-- message --> I Bought a pair for my Lincoln from Joe on hear KKOAColonel. The buckets were in decent shape with some dings but the arms that hold the brackets were really pitted. I carefully took mine apart and sent them to Orange County Plating. They are a really great bunch of guys and they do chrome correctly. When I got them back they were like brand new. However mine were the unstamped 112 buckets so I dont know how they would go about not filing in the stamp. They did them for me for $100.00. I dont know if they will do another pair for that. I sent them a bunch of stuff and if you dont like the wya it came out just tell them send it back and they will make it right. The guy I talked to is Chris. He is the owner. Be prepared to wait on them for awile as they do alot of big kobs for companys and sometimes you have to wait till there is an opening for you. I think thats why it is cheap, but they do it the right way which is nice. Im taking them my bumpers in July and parts of my dash board. Its too hot here in the summer to drive the car so that is the best time to work on them. On the handles alot of the other off series appletons use the same handles and you can find a really nice set on ebay for cheap and replace alot of the stuff that doesnt need to get chromed by using the ones you got from ebay for parts. Just be careful and take your time taking them apart. The dont look like much but there are alot of little parts. It would be much cheaper to redo them then finding a perfect set.
Funny, we were just talking about appletons at coffee today. My buddy, Larry, knows someone who gets $1500 a pair but happens to be out of them now.
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