I've dealt with removing and treating rust (I used to own a Bugeye Sprite, a Morris Mini Cooper, and an Austin Mini, and there are no great rust collectors than those cars), and know there are lots of ways to remove it, treat it, hide it. However this DeRosa got me thinking that I don't know a good, cost-effective solution to the issue of losing a big chunk of chrome on a vintage bike:

On a car, the chromed pieces are virtually always separate from the painted pieces. Bikes are obviously different. I think the paint issues on this DeRosa are relatively minor, and the rusty spot on the inside of one chain stay could be treated and disguised pretty easily. That kind of 'patina' wouldn't bother me. But the rust on the fork crown is a big eyesore, and I imagine will still look pretty terrible after the rust is treated/removed. Clearcoat or touch up paint don't seem like solutions here.

It seems like such a small area to deal with rechroming, and I know it's getting harder and harder to even find places that do this kind of work. And would you also need to repaint after the chrome is redone? How do you deal with a situation like this on a bike you want as a keeper, but where the increased value wouldn't cover the costs of doing it right?

If it were mine, I'd remove all the chrome, then just paint the crown with a chrome-like paint.

Baring that you could try a good rust remover and see what happens... "Chrome like Paint" May not look right.

It might look just as good if you paint the crown to match the fork legs. I think I'd just have it sandblasted and repaint the whole fork, that chrome is well past saving.

Remove the rust and you will have a dull gray, which is better than the brown rust. Most of the chrome is missing from the fork of my Viscontea.

Viscontea 007 by iabisdb, on Flickr


I have also used Caswell's plug and plate kit. It works OK if you do the proper prep.

Plug N' Plate® Copy Chrome Kit - Caswell Inc

Does that kit have enough power to brush plate something as large as a fork? I know it wont dip plate it, but do you think you could use it to fix a bad spot on a fork crown, or some bad spots on a chain stay?

That bike has aged well but for the flaked off chrome. As you probably know, these days keeping classics original with just normal replacement of spares and minimal touchups is cool.

I'd flake off loose bits and then treat the rust with a converter and then touch up with chrome paint to protect it. Unless you suspect there's still rust under all of it after converting. Haven't tried the plug n plate. Once the chrome plate is back I'd think you'd still need to polish it somehow. Probably end up looking about as good as chrome paint. Maybe try the $10 chrome paint and if it is awful try other optikns.

If you do decide to strip, rechrome, and repaint just the fork, a good painter or paint store can match the likely slightly faded blue. But polish the blue before bringing in to match.

I have this exact same problem on a bike. Haven't done anything to it, yet.
Which I guess just means I'm going to leave it.
But I did stop the rust from progressing.

An entire fork? Not a chance.

Something the size of a 50 cent coin? Sure.

I would consider refinishing the fork crown in a contrasting paint colour. I'd consider applying the same finish to the head lugs, brake bridge and stay caps, so it looks like factory option. Basically, I'd pull the old PX10 livery trick, but expand it to include the offending fork crown and brake bridge. That way, you don't have to worrying about re-chroming or trying to match the existing paint.

Thanks, good photo. Yes, it doesn't look as bad as I thought it would. And I'd never heard of Plug N' Plate. Do you have a photo of the results of using that?

This looks interesting. Any chance it would work to touch up small pits on things like forks and stays?

Is chrome-like paint better than the stuff I used when I built model cars? That always had kind of a swirly look. I guess you could try it, and as someone mentioned strip it right off if it looked funky.

I like the 'PX10 livery' idea, though I'm not sure I'd do it on a DeRosa. I had no problem putting racing numbers on one of my vintage Minis, but I wouldn't likely do that if I'd had a Ferrari instead.

Just treating/removing the rust and having the paint matched so it was a solid blue fork seems like good option, as long as the now 'perfect looking' fork wouldn't make the frame's patina look even more obvious.

My cheapskate cousin had an old, clapped out Jag E-Type when he was a poor college student. Many of the chromed bits were badly rusted. He removed some, and on the headlight surrounds he wrapped them with aluminum foil. It was a model year in which those surrounds were really prominent. As you can guess, it looked like hell, but the girls he picked up didn't seem to notice.

DeRosa had no problems with it...

Ah, well that's another story then.

Chrome the whole fork, it'll look like it was meant to be that way.

You try brush electroplating it yourself: https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...l#post18677059

... but you have to deal with the pitting first. I'm about to electroplate a 1950's Hetchins also with surface pitting. My strategy will be to electroplate copper, silver braze the pits, then another layer of copper, and finally a nickel-cobalt alloy. It takes time and effort to get a good result.

I've had good luck in the past wet sanding and polishing over the bare steel itself. No, it doesn't shine up like chrome, but depending on the alloy in question, it can get close enough so it's not terribly obtrusive. Then topcoat the area with a little clear. Polyurethane, nail polish, whatever.

Chrome paints I've seen won't get it that good looking.

No. I'm no longer interested in restoration.

I tried it on a loose part a few years back. Didn't put much prep time into it. Got pretty good results. Would have been better if I would have put in the time.

Don't know. Never tried it.

That was a great read! Beautiful frame, definitely worth the effort.