Interesting stuff. Big trucks have a lot of stuff that comes from plating firms.

I had some Ducati Desmo motorcycle pieces plated at Brown's Plating in Paducah, KY in the 80's.

You send it, they may/may not give you an estimate, as you either want it done, or not.(that was the protocol in 1982, I think).

Often, they don't repair damage, but they do the prep (and charge for it). I don't think they'll do the fine sanding, etc that needs to be done on rough metal, though. If I had a frame worthy of it, I'd not hesitate.

Auto body shops once did small items in 5-gal buckets for trim pieces on cars, both in a gold-look plating and chrome-like. Not sure what that was about, but I used to see the buckets, wires coming out of them, to batteries when I visited.