Ironically amusing, or just a bad joke?

[Guest prs519]

One or two of the articles on the restoration threads got me to thinking how strange it seems, that by miracle, so many cars have maintained the majority of there parts through several wars, recessions, depressions, and showings of Jimmy Stewart Christmas movie replays. Then loving hands refurbish and refinish these parts and submit the gems to the chrome platers

to receive a plated surface of gem luster. For all this, is it for some reason incumbent that the platers lose the parts, as I read happens over and over again? Help me out, here. Do the parts dissolve and go out with the bath water? What's the deal on this?

Perry in Idaho

[trimacar]

I know little about the chroming business, but have had it done on several restorations. Would love to hear from someone in the businees, but my first thought is that poor inventory methods would contribute to the problem of lost parts.

Your parts are going to be handled numerous times in the plater's shop. Along with your parts are other people's parts, and there's really no way to label or identify ownership.

Thus, the only way to track parts is memory, or list of parts, or pictures of parts.

We all know about memory. Take something apart on your car, thinking "Oh, I'll remember how to put that back together". Six months later, you're back trying to remember, you can't, as my buddy Greg states, "The trail grows cold....." A picture, a sketch, those jog the memory.

So, if you're bringing parts to a plater, have a list of parts with description, and pictures of all parts with your name on the back. One set of pictures for you, one set for the plater. Real pictures, not electronic.........

If you just bring a pile of parts to them, either you or the plater may forget what is what, and a part is gone.....

To answer one of your last comments, I have heard tales of certain alloys that will dissolve in certain chemicals, so if you're doing pot metal or such, make sure the plater is well skilled working with that metal.

[Restorer32]

If you accidentally send the plater a piece of German Silver trim from a 1917 Pierce and he doesn't recognize what it is and he attempts to strip the nickle from it you will get a frantic phone call telling you the piece dissolved and now resembles Swiss cheese. Don't ask me how I know.

[Shop Rat]

We sent a part to a well known distributor that wanted to duplicate it and the deal was if we loaned them the part to do that, they had many people wanting that part but couldn't supply it, we would get one free.

Every time we asked about the part they had no idea where it got to. They had sent it to a subcontractor and they couldn't remember which one.

Then the people we loaned it to had a fire so all the paperwork that might have listed where they sent it was destroyed. We will never get our part back. Luckily we have a spare. No, we will never do that again. :mad:

[trimacar]

I've loaned parts for duplication, but it has to be to someone I've known for a while. If I don't know them well, I've offered to have it duplicated myself if they'd pay for it.

Once the part is in someone else's control, you have no guarantee of getting it back.

There's a great foundry in Boston, Mystic Foundry, and they do nice work at very reasonable prices. I have a daughter who lives there, so sometimes I can hand deliver and pick up.

Even if you know the person, and you personally deliver to them, there can be forces of nature that can affect you. I once brought a 1907 Franklin engine to a gentleman who was known for rebuilding them. I took most of a spare engine, along with clutch assembly, so he could rebuild all.

About 8 months later, he died of a heart attack. I traveled to his house (after a respectable waiting period, and being in touch with the widow), to get my parts. I found most of the engine, never found the clutch, and I went through everything in his garage twice. It happens......

[Bhigdog]

My rechromed parts shipment contained a part not belonging to me. I called the plater and sent it to him at my cost. He claimed he never got it. Later on I found another part not belonging to me. I just threw it in the junk pile. this from a high end plater............Bob

[R Walling]

I have gone into plating shops and marveled at all the beautiful parts laying on the shelf waiting for the customer to pick them up.

I have also noted how easy it would be for someone to steal a very valuable part while the plater was in the shop! :eek: :eek: :eek:

[Terry Bond]

Seems like a good time to tell you about my ultimate plating experience. While living in the UK during restoration of my 1912 Triumph motorcycle, I sent all my nicklel plating stuff to a company in London that specialized in restoring antique motorcycle parts. I sent everything in one big box except the headlamp, carbide generator and handlebars. When the box was opened in London, someone actually drew pictures of all the parts in the box (wow, what an artist!). I guess digital photography would be the current methodology). A copy of the drawings was sent to me immediately to confirm everything was there. A copy remained with the parts basket as it was worked and plated. A third copy was included in the box when it was returned to me with check marks on each drawing that were made at each step along the way. It was an amazing way to keep everything together and inventoried. It sure made me feel good that such care was being taken to ensure nothing got lost. I still have the drawings in my scrap book.

Terry

[Bhigdog]

I take a pix of each part before I give it to the plater. He does like wise and gives me a copy with the agreed price. Stuff still goes missing but you at least have documentation...............Bob

[60FlatTop]

When I first started reading this thread I thought some guy might be sneaking into the shops at night and hauling those parts to a gully in Idaho.

[trimacar]

Hey, I've seen that gully!

The missing chrome pieces are piled in the gully, between the pile of washing machine socks and the pile of little parts that all you guys drop when working on your car, and they apparently disappear from the face of the earth.....

[Shop Rat]

Hey, I've seen that gully!

The missing chrome pieces are piled in the gully, between the pile of washing machine socks and the pile of little parts that all you guys drop when working on your car, and they apparently disappear from the face of the earth.....

Yeah, and my step-son and his two kids that live near McCall, Idaho found a bunch of that stuff in the river that runs near the house they were living in last summer. Guess these pieces washed out of the gully and into the river.

[60FlatTop]

This picture was posted on ebay a few years ago and I had to save it. It really looks like a trap set for a Riviera guy. Another use for contraband chrome:

[tbirdman]

Pauls Plating in Evans City,Pa sends a detail picture inventory with his quote. He also won't start work until he receives full payment. However he does wonderful work.

[Restorer32]

When Paul's old shop burned to the ground maybe 12? year ago we had all the chrome from an 840 Packard Roadster there. They literally sifted thru the ashes and amazingly, at least in our case, found every one of our parts. Good people.

[Guest prs519]

Shoprat: That is fodder for another thread, how parts can totally defy Newton's laws, if not Einstein's, in finding themselves a provenance far from the drop point.

Susan: I thought we already got to the bottom of that piece from the river, which was used as a prybar by Butch Cassidy?

and thank you all! I think the most said comment is 'that the complexity of simply keeping track of whose parts are whose parts' -- seems to lead to mix up and loss, plus a few really do dissolve, which would be a mystery leading to unjustified mysteries such as, "I knew by the look in his eye I shouldn't have trusted that guy"! Willing to bet a few have been dismissed over missing parts!