Hot Rods Chromed or polished engine blocks?

Has anyone chromed a block and heads, if so how?also, any pics of polished aluminum
Blocks.

 

Like this ?

 

Holy **** that Rocket motor is beautiful.

 

Sure is, and more belts than a master judo instructor.

 

My first thought when I read the ***le was 'What, are you serious?'. Then I saw Goat's picture, now I want one too!!

 

Jim, my 1st thought is.... what about the newest "chrome" powder coat or maybe the Alsa finish? The powder coat looks "polished". The Alsa... I have no 1st hand exp. with, but they sure can make it look good.
Anyhoo, my thinking is based off of the quote I was given to re-chrome 4 wheels. $$$ GADS!!! $$$

 

There's an intense amount of hand work to be done after the plating as well as all the finish machine work......

 

Looking at that motor makes me feel kinda funny. Like when we used to climb the ropes in gym cl***. Schwing! !

 

Damn now that's bad A$$

 

What about Hydrogen Embritlement? The bores would be extremely hard and would require different piston rings, like many small engines use. All the holes would be tighter due to buildup of plating. What about heat dissipation? Not saying it can't be done.
Just wondering...

 

Years ago (1975 or so) my dad & I looked at a T-bucket for sale with a totally polished aluminum Buick 215 V-8 and transmission. The guy had done it himself. All it took was time...lots and lots of time.

 

The cylinders and any important machined surfaces (main saddles,decks ect) are not chrome...... They are covered during the process.... You do have bleed over at the edges,which is where a lot of hand finishing comes in.....

I get to a computer I'll put a video of it running

 

Saw the Gr***hopper and that chromed motor in Detroit. Piece of art...

Tony is an artisan when it comes to rebuilding vintage/cl***ic motors as I can attest. Become any more of an artist at this and he will chop an ear off and go by Tony van Lombardi.

 

Thanks... Looking forward to that video.

 

That engine is a beautiful and it looks like a piece of art.

Like the Mona Lisa except prettier! HRP

 

What a beautiful mill.

 

Well.....there's the proof of a running shiny block.

 

Looks damned excessive to me. Go for it Jim!!

 

That is F'n gorgeous, and something to drool over, but not in my budget. I've been wondering if the poor man's version might be to paint the block with House of Colors Chrome paint and add lots of chromed accessories onto it.

 

Whenever I see this Hot Rod cover all I can think about is the guy on the right saying "For f***'s sake stop talking and get out of the way, this is getting heavy!"

 

holy **** @GOATROPER02 there was so much chrome on the gr***hopper that I never even noticed the block was chromed too. Tony, you sir are insane...in the best possible way. The line up of engines you had at Detroit was unreal...hemi, y-block, nailhead, olds...and all supercharged

 

WOW!

 

Incredible looking engine. And a lot of tedious work!

 

I think that the reason that a lot of the show cars in the '60s had empty blocks was not do to heat dissipation as much as it was due to the work involved making a chromed engine functional after the chroming process.

I never chromed a car engine but I did work on some plated motor cycles engines way back when. They always seemed to run hot, but it was for show not go most of the time and they were air cooled and depended entirely on heat dissipation/transfer.

I have to applaud anyone who is willing to take the time to chrome an engine and make it function afterward.

 

If I had that engine , I'd put it on the dining room table!!

 

Chrome powder coat is not anything like chrome. It will be a lot closer if you don't put the clear coat on top but it won't last nearly as long. The clear makes is nothing more than a nice silver.

This is something we've been discussing on the Slick 60's site. It's getting hard to find chromers that will do a big bumper in some areas and we are looking for alternatives. I had a set of lower control arms for a MII front suspension done in chrome powder coat so I could compare them to actual chrome and polished stainless. Not even close.

Chrome powder coat on the left (lower control arm), show chrome in the center (MII strut rod) and polished stainless on the right (upper control arm).

 

Only if your wife said it was OK