Thread: DE-Chrome-ing

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Tech1 is right, as usual! I was talking about sheet metal, but you mentioned structural suspension parts. While show cars often have outrageous amounts of expensive chrome plating on everything, there is a risk that during electroplating the H+ from the acid solutions involved in chrome plating will burrow into the interior of metal parts where it can recombine to form H2 or simple H atoms which displace metal atoms inside the metal and make steel brittle, so-called hydrogen embrittlement which weakens the parts ability to handle stress. Did I recommend paint?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder