chrome plating...!
 

Has anyone sent a frame out to have it chrome plated! I found a metal refinisher in Tampa that said they could do it!:thumb:

Haven't done it... but considered it! I'm curious to hear about your results and costs.

Here's the site but like the girl said at the picnic...I'm not sure about doing it! I'll bet it's expensive because they want to do the prep! I'll post again when I have more data!

http://www.floridametalrefinishing.com/index.htm

Ugh. I'd hate to be a fellow bicyclist riding near you on a sunny day with that thing...

ebgbz, Because of the hazardous chemicals involved and precautions defined by the EPA, there are fewer and fewer metals refinishing shops around. I also expect the expect the cost to be fairly high compared to a repaint. Let the shop do the prep as this will allow a warranty.

Brad

Agree with bradtx. Chemicals involved in plating are awful.
Bianchi already covered the world with chrome fixies.
I'd look for a powdercoater if I were you. Cheaper and far better for the environment.

well...shine on! I think I agree!

Any part of the bike that you want to have the mirror- finish look has to be polished with buffing equipment, prior to plating. The frame will be nearly as shiny before plating, as afterward. That's what takes the most time and costs the most.

Back in the days when most frames were steel, it was common to have chromed forks, lugs and chainstays, with the rest of the bike painted. Actually, the entire frame would be chrome plated, but only the exposed chrome areas are polished. Without the polishing, the chrome is dull looking.

This was common practice 40 years ago, but it can be very expensive, and it's difficult to get it right.

There's lots of prep work involves, some of which, like removing 100% of the paint, you can do yourself. Then there's a long polishing process, and depending on the skill and patience of the plater's staff, there may (will) be less or unpolished areas at the bottom bracket, and sometimes at the brake bridge and inside tops of the seat stays. These will appear satin or often yellowish when the frame is plated.

Lastly be sure the frame is not silver soldered, or if it is that the plater knows. Prior to plating the bike is pickled in an acid bath, and this can attack silver stripping it from the joints. I've alse seen some loss of brass in brazed frames, but that's easier to avoid so sonly sloppy platers do this.

My experience with platers is that very few have the motivation to do the work needed, with a bike, to have a quality job result. As others have said the process involves many steps and the judgments change when dealing with a hub cap or a bike. If you were talking about an old Harley Hog or a Colt 45 you might find the care taken would be better then with a toy, I mean a bike. Andy.

Haven't they replaced traditional actual chrome plating with processes like that newer German process that uses a less toxic sprayable mirror finish?

I think after a certain point a hunk of steel is a hunk of steel.

That type of process has been around a while. Unfortunately the durability is highly questionable.

I think you find many think an Eisentraut is quite different from a Huffy... and that's just amongst us bikies. What I was trying to say is that my experience in dealing with the plating people was frustrating and I felt like I was not worth their efforts. This experience was repeated in two cities with three different platers, and after i tried to do the homework to find ones that would work with the needs that a bike has. One buffed the frame so much that the lug shore lines were almost gone, i shuddered to think about the tube walls... Another eroded enough brass from the drop out joints that we didn't deliver the bike. The third had the chrome flaking off before we finished the assembly, there was no under layers that we could discern (copper, nickle). So my view of having chrome plating done is very disappointing. I have read of many other builders who, if they find one, won't name the plater out of concern of the guy getting too many jobs with little understanding what a plater does. Andy.

It is clear that the "brain trust" among the "bikies" here is saying that chrome plating a "toy", I mean a bike isn't worth the effort unless one just feels the need! From a practical standpoint, unless one has more money than sense it doesn't make any! :thumb:
There are several REALLY good powder coat guys in the Tampa area that can produce a real slick finish and not require all the weeping and gnashing of teeth that the prep would require...and btw my better has more than enough sparkly stuff and enough persuasive power to quash this part of a project! Thanks for the input and the help understanding the problematic nature of this!

So I had considered getting the chromed version of this BD bike, but got a yellow one instead: http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/...fantom_cxx.htm

I don't know if this is real chrome plating or some kind of chrome paint. Assuming it's real chrome plating, would a factory-chromed bike at this price level be likely to have some of the problems described above? Just curious.

Anyone use the Chrome Powdercoat?

There's no such thing as chrome paint, so a chome plated frame is just that. Depending on the factory, there may be some variation in the quality of the polishing, especially at the BB which is the most difficult place to do a decent job. But there shouldn't be any of the technical issues, like etching of the braze since this is a production piece and the plater knows what he's dealing with.

OTOH, many production chrome jobs aren't under plated as well, or have other issues, and the chrome doesn't stay bright and shiny as long as you might hope. If you think back to the days of chrome car bumpers and grills (when they were steel) you'll remember that there were issues of pitting, and sometimes peeling.

Back in 1970 (or so) I had my Italian frame chromed (head lugs and 6" or rear triangle (Italian style). I went to a plater that did naval work and had it plated to the US Navy's specs. and got a deep lustrous finish that is still bright and shiny now, but this is not the spec that most bikes are plated to.

I have a very bright silver Specialized Stumpjumper that I initially assumed was polished and clear coated, but later found was just realy bright silver paint. it looks almost chromed.


btw, best pre-paint prep I've found for bicycle frames is a good sandblasting with fine media. I think if you glass beaded a frame prior to chrome plating, you'd get a very good finish. I've only done this on tig welded steel frames. Caveat Emptor on anything else.

Chrome plating is very thin, and shows everything. You can often see the patina of the polishing operation in the plated frame. If you plated a blasted frame you'd end up with a satin finish.

BTW- it's nearly impossible to paint over chrome because the surface resists adhesion so well. It isn't rare for painted chrome surfaces to chip and peel with the paint coming off in large sections.

However, in the late 60s "acrylli-chrome" was very popular in England, and parts of the US. It was a transparent colored transparent paint applied over chrome plating. It produced beautiful metalic gem colored finishes that looked like copper, gold, emerald, ruby and saphire. These wete show-piece bikes, often with areas, like the lug work masked off for contrast. Unfortunately it was a delicate finish, and many once prowd owners ended up using acetone to strip the damaged paint back down to the bare chrome.

Just to be sure my "toy" comment is understood. I was saying that the platers (that I have dealt with and have been told about) often feel that a bike is not worth their efforts. That a bike is just a toy. That some manly thing (fill in your fantasy object here) that gets the plater's blood going will get far better treatment. I, in no way, was saying that chroming a bike turns it into a toy. I actually like chrome on a bike when done well and in the right places. Andy.

Back in the 70s or earyl 80s Schwinn sold a chrome bike.

What I meant was the plater sees a an Eisentraut as equally as a Huffy as equally as any other piece brought into the shop. With glazed eyes he preps and plates and you give him money.

This was how I found it when I got a bike powder coated. I guess plating is more risky. Too bad about your experiences though.

I think most of them did.

A few facts from a guy who's chromed a lot of motorcycle and car parts. You must polish the base metal to nearly the same luster that you expect from the finished product, prior to plating. An alternative that is sometimes used, involves applying a thick layer of copper plating to the part, to fill some of the small imperfections, then polishing the copper to a high luster, prior to nickel plating, then chrome plating. The copper is a lot easier to polish than steel. This method also insures that the thickness of the base metal is not reduced.

It's the thickness of the nickel that really makes a difference and actually does fill-in some small inperfections in the polished surface. The nickel plating process takes many times longer than the chrome plating. The layer of chrome is very thin and only takes a few minutes in the tank to complete. It's also a one-shot deal. If you don't apply enough current, of fail to use an appropriate secondary anode, the chrome may not "throw" into recessed areas. That's when you get the yellow/gold look of the nickel, where the chrome didn't reach. You don't get a second chance to put the part back into the tank, once it's been removed and rinsed off.

The standard cleaning process for bare steel should never remove the brazing material. The polished frame would spend a few minutes in a hot alkaline reverse current cleaning tank, a rinse with water, then a few minutes in a diluted muriatic acid bath, another rinse, followed by copper, nickel and chrome plating, with water rinses between each step.

Stripping the chrome off a plated part only takes a minute or so in a hot alkaline bath, reverse current cleaning tank. Removing nickel and copper requires many hours of soaking in strong chemical bath (that contained a lot of cyanide when I did it in the 70's). That's a process that would also dissolve the brazing material.