i paid $96 per bike for powdercoating, which included the cost of chemical paint stripping and media blasting. and yes, chrome can be preserved. it can get masked off with high-temperature tape. here are the two bikes i had powdercoated, preserving the chrome rear triangle of each:





for the bike in the first pic, the chrome was hidden beneath the factory paint, but i had my powder coater polish it up and mask it off when powder coating the rest of the frame.

asking a powder coater to do additional labor-intensive steps, like masking off intricate lug work for contrasting colors, or doing a color fade, should increase the cost. but simply masking off a rear triangle is pretty trivial.