That depends on what quality of chrome you want. if you want show chrome you will pay the extra money. Paragon and Pauls chrome is near 800.00 a pair as well, but it is for show chrome that you will not have to worry about flaking, pitting, or fading in the near future. Paul's chrome actually might even be more, i think they quoted me close to 1,000.00

 

Rips offs - I got top quality triple plate show chrome for my '62 bumpers about 2 years ago. $250 each piece. The guys with they name always want more. I have spent over $20k over the years in having pieces chromed on my cars and know how much work is involved in the different types of pieces. Bumpers are by far the easiest pieces to plate. Even if rust through repair is needed they are not difficult or time consuming. Basically the piece is stipped in a chemical solution, any repairs or straigtening done, then to the copper - nickel, chrome steps. $400 a piece is wayyyy over priced. Seems like Mr. "Paul" is taking advantage of those who don't know and are listening to his line of BS

 

I dont know if i would call it a rip off because several shops refused to repair them. I asked the forum for help when choosing a plater and advanced seemed to be the most highly recommended at the time. If i had received a recommendation for triple plating for 250.00 that was excellent quality, then i would have probably tried that shop out.
What is the name of the shop that did your bumpers in triple plate for 250.00 per corner. I have two more for another car that need to go and i would like to call and speak with your chrome platers.
Thanks

 

Libranti's is who I use for my chrome work. The chrome work I have had done by him is fantastic.
Todd is honest, but can be pricey. He'll tell you though if a part isn't good enough to be rechromed. Hell, I think I've taken 3 or 4 sets of rear bumpers sets to him to see if he could rechrome them. Said they weren't worth me spending the $$ on them to have them done. He'd tell me to go buy repops. I either sold them of Ebay or to the Bumper Boyz when they are at Carlisle.

http://www.carchrome.com/

Todd does great work!

 

The place is Nu-Chrome in Fall River, Mass. The guy you deal with, Jack, is a royal PIA with more than a ton of BS. The price can be worked down. The quality of the work is excellent and the workers have years of being with the company. If a plater turns down a piece as being "unrepairable" then they simply don't know how to do the work, Nu-Chrome can fix almost any part. Metal bumpers,as I said before are the easiest of all parts, no matter what the condition. I have seen Nu-Chrome make total scrap looking pieces like new. I have always brought the parts to them as face-to-face gets more than just sending them and trying to negotiate over the phone. They do a huge amount of work, and could probably do even more if it wasn't for their saleperson's attitude (he makes you think he owns the place and he doesn't, he's just the salesman). With any luck you might talk to Frank, who is only slightly better, but if you tell him you like bikes, you can get him on your side.

The only other place that does high quality work, but probably more expensive is Jon Wrights Custom Chrome in Ohio.

 

A little bit of knowledge on Chrome
Chrome is slang for Chromium, one of the 91 naturally occurring chemical elements. Chrome is a metal, but it is not useful as a solid, pure substance. Things are never made of solid chrome. Rather, when you hear that something is chrome, what is really meant is that there is a thin layer of chrome, a plating of chrome, on the object (the bulk of the object usually being steel, but occasionally aluminum, brass, copper, plastic, or stainless steel).
What's the difference between "Chrome Plating", "Chrome Electroplating", "Chrome Dipping", "Chroming", etc.?
Nothing. Chrome is always applied by electroplating, it is never melted onto parts in the fashion of chocolate on strawberries, or applied in any other way than by electroplating.
There are two different general applications for chrome plating: "hard chrome plating" (sometimes called 'engineering chrome plating') and "decorative chrome plating" (sometimes called 'nickel-chrome plating').

Hard Chrome Plating
Most people would not be very familiar with hard chrome plating. Hard chrome plating is chrome plating that has been applied as a fairly heavy coating (usually measured in thousandths of an inch) for wear resistance, lubricity, oil retention, and other 'wear' purposes. Some examples would be hydraulic cylinder rods, rollers, piston rings, mold surfaces, thread guides, gun bores, etc. 'Hard chrome' is not really harder than other chrome plating, it is called hard chromium because it is thick enough that a hardness measurement can be performed on it, whereas decorative chrome plating is only millionths of an inch thick and will break like an eggshell if a hardness test is conducted, so its hardness can't really be measured directly.
Hard chrome plating is almost always applied to items that are made of steel, usually hardened steel. It is metallic in appearance but is not particularly reflective or decorative. Hard chrome plating is not a finish that you would want on a wheel or bumper.
There are variations even within hard chrome plating, with some of the coatings optimized to be especially porous for oil retention, etc., others "thin dense chrome", and so on.

Many shops who do hard chrome plating do no other kind of plating at all, because their business is designed to serve only engineered, wear-type, needs. If a shop says they do 'hard chrome only', they have no service that most consumers would be interested in.

Decorative chrome plating is sometimes called nickel-chrome plating because it always involves electroplating nickel onto the object before plating the chrome (it sometimes also involves electroplating copper onto the object before the nickel, too). The nickel plating provides the smoothness, much of the corrosion resistance, and most of the reflectivity. The chrome plating is exceptionally thin, measured in millionths of an inch rather than in thousandths.
When you look at a decorative chrome plated surface, such as a chrome plated wheel or truck bumper, most of what you are seeing is actually the effects of the nickel plating. The chrome adds a bluish cast (compared to the somewhat yellowish cast of nickel), protects the nickel against tarnish, minimizes scratching, and symbiotically contributes to corrosion resistance. But the point is, without the brilliant leveled nickel undercoating, you would not have a reflective, decorative surface.
"Show chrome", "Triple Chrome Plating", "Double Nickel-Chrome"

"Show chrome" probably means chrome that is good enough to be on a winning entry in a car show. Although most OEMs rely on the "self-leveling" property of nickel plating to give sufficient reflectivity to roughly polished steel, chrome-lovers believe that the key to "show chrome" is to copper plate the item first and then buff the copper to a full luster before starting the nickel plating.
Whether you start with bare steel or buffed copper, at least two layers of plating follow -- a layer of nickel and a layer of chrome. But high quality plating requires either very thick nickel or a minimum of two layers of nickel.
Salespeople are always looking for advantage, and they will use any good-sounding terms they can get away with! There are no laws that define what triple chrome plating actually means, so salespeople will be prone to call their service "triple chrome plating" if there are a total of 3 layers of any kind of plating, or "quadruple chrome plating" if there are 4. So those terms mean little.
By the way, tri-chrome is not an abbreviation for triple chrome, and hex chrome does not mean six layers. But more on that later . . .
The most important issue for durable chrome plating for outdoor exposure such as on a vehicle is that it should have at least two layers of nickel plating before the chrome: namely semi-bright nickel followed by bright nickel. The reason for this involves galvanic corrosion issues. The bright nickel is anodic to the semi-bright nickel, and sacrificially protects it, spreading the corrosion forces laterally instead of allowing them to penetrate through to the steel. OEMs demand very close control of this factor, and there is a test (the Chrysler developed STEP test) which large shops run daily to insure the right potentials. Careful control of this issue is probably the principal reason that today's chrome plating greatly outlasts the chrome plating of earlier times. If a restoration shop offers only single layer nickel plating, they must apply it really really heavy if corrosion resistance is to be guaranteed.

Experts argue whether copper plating provides any additional corrosion resistance at all, but with or without copper plating, chrome on top of a single thin layer of nickel will not hold up to the severe exposure of a vehicle! Industry professionals call the two layers of nickel "duplex nickel plating", and that would be a much better term to use than "triple chrome" and such.
Color Chrome
With the exception of Black Chrome plating, there is no such thing as colored chrome. Rather, those colored coatings are translucent paints applied over a layer of tiny aluminum flakes, and should be called "chrome-look paint"; more on this later.
Some "black chrome" is probably "chrome-look paint", but real black chrome plating is achieved with a contaminant that turns the metal smoky grey or fully black. Black chrome can be a decorative finish for automobile parts, or a matte finish for non reflective coatings on microscopes and optical equipment, or a great coating for solar collectors. We have an excellent podcast interview about black chrome.
Restoration Work
Chrome plating is hardly a matter of dipping an article into a tank, it is a long involved process that often starts with tedious polishing and buffing, then cleaning and acid dipping, zincating (if the part is aluminum), and copper plating. For top reflectivity "Show Chrome", this will be followed by buffing of the copper for perfect smoothness, cleaning and acid dipping again, and plating more copper, then two or three different types of nickel plating, all before the chrome plating is done. Rinsing is required between every step.

When an item needs "rechroming", understand what is really involved: stripping the chrome, stripping the nickel (and the copper if applicable), then polishing out all of the scratches and blemishes (they can't be plated over and any scratches will show after plating), then plating with copper and "mush buffing" to squash copper into any tiny pits, then starting the whole process described above.

Unfortunately, simply replating an old piece may cost several times what a replacement would cost. It's the old story of labor cost. The new item requires far less prep work, and an operator or machine can handle dozens of identical parts at the same time whereas a mix of old parts cannot be processed simultaneously, but must be processed one item at a time. If a plater has to spend a whole day on your parts, don't expect it to cost less than what a plumber or mechanic would charge you for a day of their time.
Peeling chrome?
If your chrome plating is peeling, this is virtually always a manufacturing defect due to insufficient adhesion of the plating to the substrate. Although exposure conditions can certainly harm chrome, and discolor it or make it pit, they won't make it peel! It can be very difficult for a plating shop to get good adhesion on some things (most commonly on alloy wheels because they are not pure aluminum), but if they can't do it they shouldn't sell it. If your parts have peeling chrome, you should complain and not be deterred by nonsense about chemicals in your garage, how frequently you wash the wheels, etc. We'll say it again, we're that sure: peeling chrome is virtually always a manufacturing defect.
Do it yourself?
The best way to chrome plate something is to take it to a chrome plating shop. The industry is very 'job shop' oriented, with experienced people ready to handle your parts. Before thinking seriously about doing it yourself, here's some food for thought--
Regulations
Electroplating was our nation's very first categorically regulated industry. So, what does "categorically regulated" mean? It means that all of the waste products from this industry -- even very dilute rinse water -- are, as a matter of law, regulated, even if the particular substance is so dilute that it is actually harmless. Mix the waste in with other waste, and the whole mass is by law hazardous waste (see EPA 'mixture rule'). Make another product from it and (with some exception) the product is hazardous waste (see EPA 'derived from' rule).
In turn this means you can't discharge a drop of hose water without pretreatment and permits; it means you can't take your bad solution anywhere without hazardous waste manifesting; it means you can't accumulate it without permits either. Finally, it means you are legally responsible for it forever regardless of how much you spend to get rid of it.
But are you subject to these regulations? If you are selling plated parts or plating services, absolutely! See EPA CFR431 and try to find an exception -- you won't. If you are doing it solely as a hobby, maybe you can get away with it if you stay lucky. But if the sewer authority wants to impose an assessment for upgrading the piping, and your neighbors know that you are plating, they will probably turn you in in a heartbeat. Read the fine print on your sewer agreement: you're forbidden from putting these wastes down the drain and both your neighbors and the sewer authority would dearly love for you to have to bear the cost of repairs or upgrades. Is it likely to happen? Probably not. Can it happen? Yes.
Chromic Acid
Chrome plating is done in very highly concentrated (about 32 oz./gal) chromic acid, H2CrO4 -- "hexavalent chromium" -- the stuff that made Erin Brockovich a household word. If a neighborhood child develops cancer from any cause whatsoever and his/her parents find out that you were chrome plating, God help you. Factories that use this stuff require exhaust scrubbing, they require fume suppressants that are monitored every day. The workers require medical surveillance (frequent blood tests for absorbed chromium).
If you do illegally dispose of chromic acid you will probably be caught because it leaches through the ground very readily and turns up in the aquifer, and it is not only easily detectable but it's visible at 1 part in a million, and all wells and water supplies are monitored for chrome.
Dropped a beaker on the garage floor? That could be enough to poison all of the wells for a few city blocks in every direction, and you do not have "pollution insurance" in your homeowner's policy.
On top of all this, many city councils have a written or de facto ban on chrome plating.
Finally, chrome plating is notorious for hydrogen embrittlement. If you don't know how to immediately and properly bake the parts to relieve the embrittlement, you can turn hardened steel parts like springs, steering linkage, and fasteners into brittle glass. Stewy

 

Thanks Stewy. That was a good read. I learned something today

-- Steve

 

I absolutely love getting a professional's perspective on such matters. Stewy did more to get me up to date on the plating process than all the other (usually somewhat conflicting) online research I have done on the matter.

Thanks!

Doug

 

Okay, I just got my first piece back from the chromer today. Overall, it looks great with really fast turn-around. The tab replacement appears very professional and luster of the chrome itself is very nice. But I do have one question. There are a few spots barely perceivable to the naked eye that, under magnification, have a similar appearance to silicone under powder-coat. Is this normal or are these areas pits just waiting to pop-through?

 

Sounds like pits too me. Many platers try to cover up small or potential pits by trying to have the copper fill it. The only technique that works is to drill out the pits and fill them silver solder - a much more expensive method. Even with all detectible pits filled it doesn't mean that others in the pot metal won't appear over time.

 

Stewy, that was an impressive write-up...

Mike

 

Well, this is one time I find myself very remorseful for posting on this forum. I am not, repeat not, a chrome expert. I ask questions because I truly don't know and therefore, seek the answers from you guys. In this case, I cast the chrome guy in a bad light by questioning a microscopic flaw. Since then, I've learned that the piece is absolutely show quality, professional work that is a good as it gets. For this, I can only apologize for my stupidity. This is one of those rare occasions when the price isn't too good to be true. Va Vettes did awesome work for a very reasonable price and I just flat blew it.

 

Okay. I just got back my second windshield post. This post was done by another highly recommended plater. I can honestly say the quality is outstanding. I can also say that when laid side-by-side with the post Va Vettes did, I see NO difference. Again, I'm no expert, but I can compare a "benchmark" piece to another.

 

I used Advanced Plating for my ISCA car - they were VERY expensive - I stress very - but the chrome was unreal and never had a problem with it

For this car I have used Pauls exclusively - prices are decent but quality is top notch and lead times are decent
I will def use them again.
I would rec them

 

We do the windshield posts for $189/ea

 

I called John Wright in Grafton, OH and received a quote of $1000-1200
for the rear bumpers only... Yes they do top work, but that's quite
a bit for rechroming nice original bumpers. Found a place closer
and at less than half this price. Yes, I know you get what you pay
for, I am sure I will be happy with the $400 chroming I will get verses
what the bumpers look like now.

 

Bob Ore in Erie, PA at Qual-Krom Erie - 814-899-8546 is fantastic if you need triple plated show chrome quaranteed for life. He has done Bloomington Gold-rated cars. He's not the cheapest, but he is the best I've seen. Bring your part to Spring Carlisle - he has a booth along "chrome alley" there.

 

Who, where, how much was the difference ! Was one post more pitted than another. More details on your findings pretty please. Stewy

 

Check you mailbox. The last thing I want to do is start a chrome war. I can say the new guy was approximately $100 higher. Oh, the post I sent to Va. Vettes was by far the more pitted piece.