A GOOD and A BAD story about CHROME

About a year ago I made an inquiry to a fellow Buick enthusiasts about a possible source for quality chrome work. He put me in touch with a gentleman that is a car collector and has a small museum. He told me that there was only one place that he would ever send chrome work and that was a shop in Jeannette , PA called Bills Chrome. So in my travels, I stopped by his shop and visited with Bill. He had worked a number of years for one of the big name chrome shops but it had been sold and the quality of the work seemed to deteriorate. Long story short, Bill decided to start his own chrome business about 15 years back. It is a one man shop (he does have help with the blasting and repair) as Bill does ALL of the chroming himself. He prides himself with knowing that every piece that goes out his door is of the finest quality and he guarantee's his work for life!!! I now have the chrome for my '57 Special back and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!! For the most part I took good cores to him to be plated but some were not so good and he does marvelous repair work. I could not be happier with his work. Also to Bills credit he has done all of the chrome work on a Ridler Award car plus several other show/museum cars.

During my first visit he showed be a stack of parts from a 1954 Buick ( No it was not Mr Earl's) that had been plated by another shop to the tune of $5000 and you would not believe what I saw! Vent window frames that they did not remove the rubber. Assemblies that were chromed as an assembly rather than pieces. Some of the parts were so bad that it was questionable as to whether they could be saved. He also had been directed to Bill after his unfortunate experience and was trying to salvage his parts.

I guess the point I am stressing is that there are many chrome shops around but not all of them do quality work. Yes, I was looking for quality and quality is not cheap! If you are going to have parts re-chromed do your home work. I highly recommend Bills as a quality chrome shop.

Gary

Pretty sure those parts were from a Special convertible of which I referred the owner to Bill's after he told me of his horrible experience. Sad case indeed.

It in fact was a convertible! The top irons were a disaster.

Nice to know. Thanks for another good lead on chrome. Getting closer on my car

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do you have contact info, Gary?

Yep Bills is local to me and he has always had a good reputation. He did parts for my 71 Riviera in the late 90s and it was perfect. Interestingly the small town Jeannette PA has two high level plating shops. The other is M&P Refinishing who I used recently. Prices reflect the high quality but generally are still less expensive than the big name plating shops. As you found there is no substitute to visiting a shop and speaking with the owner and asking to see examples of work they do.

Glad you had a good experience.

Bills Chrome

819 Clay Ave Jeannette, PA 15644‎

(724) 527-5119

Thanks Jason.

I have heard Superior Chrome in Houston, Texas does good work and have seen a 1948 Chevy convertible they did. Does anyone have any sources/experiences in the Houston area?

I am one of a bunch of happy customers of Bills Chrome, and he continues to do the highest of quality work. Just recently I sent a set of hubcaps that had numerous dents. Since these were the type with an inner and outer metal surface, I didn't expect too much. However they came back looking like factory new! I also sent a vintage hood ornament with the same results. Bill knew I was in need of these parts and got them out for me sooner than promised. I have too many cars, so have dealt with many platers, but none can compare to Bill's Chrome. His price is always fair too.

Contact Information:

Bill's Chrome

819 Clay Ave.

Jeannette, PA 15644 (Pittsburgh area)

15644

Phone 724-527-5119

Could you please ask him to open a shop in Australia.....thanks

Could you please ask him to open a shop in Australia.....thanks

I doubt if this is possible, but will say that his wife is the Postmaster (Postmistress?) of Jeannette, PA (a small town near Pittsburgh), and he receives and ships many small and medium size items by the U.S. Postal System. If you have a small part that needs plated, you might try this route some day. Sometimes we hand-carry our parts as we are only about 70 miles away and other times we use UPS from work or the postal system.

However, one time UPS broke a top grille part of my 1957 Buick in half and it took a long time to resolve. (Luckily I insured the part for $600). Thanks to Mr. Earl, a good friend of Mr. Earl, and other members of this forum, i was able to locate a very good replacement piece and had it shipped to Bill in a wooden carton for plating and all ended up well. After the replacement part was plated, we picked it up, as didn't want any more broken parts, although the wooden crate would have probably survived almost anything. I can also say that Bill is very dependable and reliable and having his wife in charge of the local post office is a plus.

Check out the '57 Buick.

Fred