Gold-plated dropouts
 

Hello there - my 1975 Harry Quinn has gold plated campag dropouts. The man who owned it before me used to work next door to a place where they plated bathroom stuff for the middle eastern market and got them to do it. It looks really lovely, but is suffereing the ravages of time in some places. Any idea where I could get this done again?

Current bathroom stuff is TiN plated, titanium nitride not tin. It has a gold lustre and is a ceramic so it is pretty hard and wear resistant. In a previous job, we looked at the coating for reducing wear on the bearing surfaces of knee implants. Something tells me this would be cost prohibitive.

The fact that they were doing the bathroom stuff for the Middle East (yes, I am stereotyping rich oil barons here) suggests that it really could be gold on your bike. Look for an electroplater in your local yellow pages. They would definitely be able to point you in the right direction. If not, check with an antique restoration service, as they would do something similar to restore old plates and silverwork.

pics, must have pics.

anything else gold plated to match the dropouts?

I'm pretty sure CyclArt will do gold plating.

I hear the pentagon is producing gold plated toilets for the middle east. try them.

No - just the dropouts, front and back. I've got the weight to consider you know! And I'll try to do something about the pics