This new-to-me frame came repainted, with an exposed chrome drive side chain stay. If the pictures show it well enough, there is a hard line at the drop out that I assumed was the end of the chrome plating. It looks like the faces of the drop out are steel. However, again if photographed well, the rear of the drop out and derailleur hanger are clearly chrome plated.
The same goes for the NDS dropout. Satin faces but chrome edges. And maaaaaybe part of the NDS chain stay is chrome? I gave it a wet sand and it seemed to get shinier.
Can anyone make sense of this?

Only conjecture.

a chance the dropout was partially masked for reasons unknown prior to the chrome layer.
Chrome does not like to plate at inclusive regions. Buffer operators don’t like to have frames get snagged and go flying.
of course lots of opportunities for that at the cable stop.

I have an Italian frame where the clamp faces of the dropout are showing chrome, chainstay shows chrome as does the aft edge of the dropouts, the rest of the dropout has paint.
terrible chrome plating too. No copper layer. It was a race bike. Color almost lifts with a heavy breath. Italy in the 1980’s.

weird

Replacement for broken dropout? Or replacement for original non-hanger-fied dropout, perhaps?

Definitely original and unrepaired Losa work.

O think it might have been masked for the original paint and chrome; then perhaps sand blasted for the repaint.

It is a quirky frame.

It's funny, I was just posting about a question I had about chrome plating on dropouts — a little bit different, but similar.

I can see chrome plating on the rear of the drive side dropout, not so much anywhere else besides the drive side chain stay. I think it has to do with the plating process. I've done some plating using Caswell products.. not chrome but zinc/copy cadmium.. but I think it's a similar process. You negatively charge the part (it becomes the cathode) and positively charge the metal that forms the plate (anode), and the plating moves electrically in in the bath in a radiating wave pattern from positive to negative. It forms a sort of cone from each anode positioned around the part, but it can also get pulled around corners to a certain degree. The bit on the rear of the dropout is probably just from less-than-perfect masking.

It’s likely that both are chrome plated. When chrome plating is shiny the polishing is done before the plating. If you sand the chrome you’ll be making it thinner and can cause bubbling. Then you will need to remove all the chrome or your paint will bubble.

Brass, polish, nickel strike then chrome.

The right amount of quirky. I even uncovered another 'C' panto'd into the brake bridge. She's gonna be fun.

I could never track down any Cassani information. Thought the rider (but likely too early and no response back), and no go on contact with the Losas. I presumed it was for a sponsor of some sort who wanted their name on it.

Interesting to find a C on the bridge. Had not uncovered that yet. But my favorites are the Cassanis on the seat stay caps. Would love to see the brake bridge C

I also could never decipher the writing on the steerer tube on the fork.

[MENTION=203117]jamesdak[/MENTION] has a Krapf version of it, and I believe maybe [MENTION=133818]Choke[/MENTION] has a Magni or Losa labelled version.

Dave

I did reach out to Jamesdak already about his. The Losas never got back to me either. Not a huge deal. I'm thinking I may try and source some Losa decals for it.

Yeah, you can't lose with Losa. I seem to recall him being involved with Cinelli at some point...Laser or something? But his work seems to be found in several different brands.

I was going to custom make Cassani decals as my first inclination.

I am stoked by your excitement. I know you were the right recipient!

I have 3 Losa bikes; a 70s Losa (repainted and if I understood the seller it was done by Losa), a late 70s ICS Magni and an 80s 'Schneider' (Swiss bike shop). None of mine have the indented seat tube though. Needless to say I'm a big Losa fan.

Losa built the Cinelli Supercorsa from the mid-90s until 2008. I've also seen references on another forum that Losa built some Colnago models and some DeRosas (that latter came from Richard Sachs, who visited the Losa factory in the 70s).

My conjecture is that you are oh-so-close.

I think the chainstay was polished, as typical of Italian bikes of that era. Then the entire frame was chrome dipped, as typical of Italian bikes of that era.

Everything was normal and obvious, until repaint time, and the entire bike was sandblasted except for the chainstay and where the sandblaster missed a few spots.

The chrome on the chainstay can be made to look like new with a buffing wheel, even after sanding accidentally.

Thankfully the drive side chainstay chrome is in pretty great shape. I've gone over it with some aluminum foil and polish. The rest of the rear triangle appears to be raw steel under the paint.

I was always under the impression that chrome alloy steels did not need pre-plating and could be directly chrome plated.

from some I have seen, a lot of Italians also thought so!
But for durability (maybe not so much "job #1" in order to get a flash frame quickly out the door) the classic triple layer works best:
on the polished steel surface first a layer of copper plating, followed by nickel plating, finished with the thin chrome layer.
Time tested