coktavec

can you rechrome lightly pitted chrome windshield trim??, what is electroless plating. any good shops out there anyone has used and had excellent results ?
thanks in advance

JmpnJckFlsh

The only Corvettes that I know of that had chrome plated windshield trim were the old straight axle cars; all the later cars had stainless steel trim moldings which can be polished using a buffing wheel with white rouge.

I believe electroless plating is a name used for some small home plating kits; it's an oxymoron...there is no such thing as plating without the "electro". If you want something that will look original and last as long as the original did, spring for real chrome plating. I have also used the plating shop that Patrick recommended and they do a good job...not cheap, but good quality and service.

John McGraw

Most of the trim on corvettes is polished stainless which has a flash chrome on top of it. You can just polish out the trim with stainless compound and a buffing wheel to a mirror finish and it will last for years, but will get point deducts from a knowledgeable judge. The polished stainless will have a slight yellow tint to it and te flash chromed trim is icy blue. there are some shops that know what they are doing when chroming this trim, but most will do a standard triple plate process on it which will not look right. There is enough nickle in the stainless that a freshly buffed piece will take chrome right on the stainless. You should schedule with your plater to deliver the piece to him when he is ready to plate it as leaving it lay around for a long period of time will start oxidation and affect the ability of chrome to stick. From a platers perspective this is very inexpensive work since there is almost no labor on the platers part, and the part only stays in the tank for a couple of minutes. I have used Rick Applegate at AREBA services in Tn to do this work for me several times and have been pleased with his work and pricing. If judging your car is not in your future then just buff the chrome off, and polish to a high shine. 99.9% of the people will never know the difference. :seeya

coktavec

thanks guys, guess i should have explained the parts to be redone are coming off my 57 tbird i'm in the process of restoring. was concerned about some windshield trim that has problem. how do you remove the scratches from stainless?? :cheers:


[Modified by coktavec, 10:55 PM 11/24/2001]

Ron D

OMG You brought fafafafafaffffford here :D shreeeeeeiiiiiikkkkkkk. Well I guess thats okay, one has to have another car when it rains :) . Yes you can have the trim fixed, I think they fill the pits with brass and then rechrome your parts. As for your S/Steel trim, they can be buffed to take out the scratches. You will most likely be able to either get the chrome shop to do this for you or I like to use a Silver smith for my trim bits as they are 'really' fussy and usually go above and beyond for you. The way I found the best place in town to do my chroming is to phone up an upitty resto shop and ask them who they use. There is a large differance bewteen shops that do this type of work, being as it is not cheap you will want to do some research before spending any $$$

John McGraw

There are a number of people who polish and repair stainless and if you are a true masochist such as my self you can do the job yourself. Removing pits and scratches is just a matter of sanding with progressive finer and finer sand papers followed by buffing with a wheel and compounds. Dings and dents can be picked out from the rear and the sanded to perfection. If the windshield trim is all you have to do then send it out, as the cost of supplies and the learning curve will not make it cost effective. If you are interested in learning how to do it, Email me off board and I will be glad to share several resources and tips to doing stainless restoration. It is a dirty, filthy job and picking out dings will drive you mad, but a great feeling of accomplishment when done. :seeya

JmpnJckFlsh

John, how the devil do you keep from going right through that thin layer of "smack chrome" (tenths of thousandths) with all that sanding, and picking, and filing? After you've sanded, and picked, and filed, do you then have to send it out for some of that "smack chrome"?

I believe that "smack chrome" story could be right for those ole pre-Corvettes, but I don't think they did "smack chrome" on the later cars' stainless. In fact, I am not convinced ole Reverend Varoom didn't come up with that story as a joke! Hee, Hee...It would give him a lot of pleasure to know you were perpetuating it as the truth. You'll have to excuse me, John, I'm just a stoopid amateur. :jester :jester

John McGraw

Chuck, Almost all stainless trim is FLASH chrome plated, regardless of make or model. It makes it easy to abutt chrome trim without a different color and makes the trim shine more durable. Yes, if you repair and sand the trim you will end up with trim that has a slight yellow cast to it and will oxidize over time without polishing. For people who will never have their car judged it would not be noticable to most people. If the plating is to be replaced then all traces of the old chrome has to be removed prior to polishing with an muriatic acid bath so the chrome will bond to the nickel. The larger the part the less likely that you would not encounter a point deduct with out replacing the chrome. Any judge short of those with a seeing eye dog could spot wheelcovers that have had the chrome buffed off.

Dale is convinced that SMAK was a reverse polarity process, but this does not make any sense to me as I know that in order for the chrome to flow to the part then the current flow has to be in that direction. In reading plating texts I found an electro-chemical process that used reverse polarity to remove oxides and leave clean nickel on the surface for chrome to bond to. The text further stated that mechanical cleaning(i.e. buffing) woulld remove the oxides as well and produce as good a job. I belive that GM used the electo-chemical process due to it's lower cost and somehow became known as SMAK plating. I have had many items flash chromed and the look is exactly the same as the NOS trim I have. Keep in mind that I am talking about FLASH chrome, no strike coat, no copper coatt, and only a coulple of minutes in the chrome tank. The only down side is that the polishing process often leaves a more perfect surface than the factory ever managed to do. :seeya


[Modified by John McGraw, 10:43 PM 11/25/2001]