Thread: DE-Chrome-ing

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Riverhorse59, Matoaca eh, it looks like we are very near in location. In my younger days I worked in two different commercial plating shops, but I have not kept up with current prices. You are probaby aware there are several plating shops in the Richmond area. One that comes to mind is the Clover Hill shop on Hull Street near the Chippenham Parkway. All I can tell you is that chrome can be removed by reverse electrolysis, so- called electropolishing, but I doubt if local shops do that since they are mainly set up to plate, not deplate. Of course paint is a possibility and after normal cleaning you could use aluminum spray can paint followed by some sort of clearcote. I am dressing up some rusted steel brackets on my 350 using this approach and it looks pretty good initially but you have to seal the aluminum paint or when dirt gets on it, it will quickly look shabby. Then there is the option of just cleaning off as much as will flake off with a wire brush, sanding with emery paper and using a thick primer before painting with the color of your choice. As far as replating goes the problem is that pitting will have to be fixed, probably by plating with Cu for several coats followed by buffing. The main thing I learned about electroplating is that nothing looks any smoother after plating than it looked as polished before! There are several other plating shops in the Richmond area so shop around and ask if they will "electropolish" some pieces for you but my advice would be to replate a few small pieces and paint the rest either body color or aluminum with clearcote. If you look at many rods from the '30s a lot of parts are painted where replating would have been hopeless. Of course in extreme cases of restoration where expense is not an issue a lot of pitting can be fixed by heavy copper plating followed by buffing and then rechroming. Unless you are restoring an old luxury car for high points, paint is a more sensible solution. In particular, pitting and other rough surfaces can be painted and sanded several times to regain a smooth surface. I would be careful with acid dipping, although there is a jelly with hydrochloric acid in it used by restorers sometimes. The problem is that when the rust is gone there is a hole or pit and some of the other metal goes with it. Yes rust needs to be removed and engine blocks are dipped in such a hot solution for that purpose, but sheet metal is more fragile than large cast iron pieces. If you want to dip the inner panel of a fender try talking to an engine rebuilding shop like Joe's Machine shop in Ashland. Also you want a "pickeling dip, acid", the caustic solution used to clean radiators will not do a very good job on rust since rust is intrinsically a base so you need an acid to dissolve it, not another caustic base. There is a guy who works at the Sears Auto (gave me a good deal on tires) at the Virginia center who totally stripped a Chevelle and he lives on Parham Ave in the west end of Richmond and my oh my did that Chevelle turn out nice (ironically he had it painted Mustang yellow). The engine bay of that Chevelle looks BETTER than new! (But does he drive it?)

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder