Nickel plating of long pieces

[Guest Ken G]

Last June there was a string of correspondence about plating. The surround to the windshield of my Rover is brass and was once nickel-plated. A little of the plating survives under the mirror bracket and is fairly shiny. The rest has long gone. I have been considering replating it (and other small bits and pieces). I realize that it must first be prepared suitably; some areas don?t need to be perfect, but the outside will probably need a lot of tender care to fill scratches.

I understand that scratches and other small blemishes are best dealt with by copper-plating and then sanding and polishing, with the nickel-plating going on last. Looking at the Caswell catalog, there appear to be electric and non-electric processes, certainly for nickel but probably also for copper. Can anyone with experience offer advice on their relative virtues and vices? I think the non-electric processes require elevated temperatures and therefore heaters, while the electrical ones are probably performed at room temperature but obviously need a suitable electrical source (I have access to adjustable voltage and current limited power supplies which should serve, provided I know what values to use).

Whichever I use, I shall need to accommodate long (2 feet or more) narrow pieces, beyond the sizes of the plating tanks or baths provided with Caswell kits. It may be possible to improvise using plastic wrap, but I'm not sure whether that would stand near-boiling temperatures. How about a length of plastic piping, perhaps with an inside diameter of 1 ½ or 2 inches and a cork at one end? For non-electric processes, I don't know how I would maintain the elevated temperature, nor for electro-plating, how I would devise the source electrode.

I would be very interested in suggestions. Somebody must have tackled a similar problem.

Ken G, 1925 Rover 16/50 (San Francisco)

[Restorer32]

Save yourself a lot of grief and expense and send them out to a reputable chrome plater, unless you're a glutton for punishment or trying to prove you can do it (an admirable goal in my opinion). You certainly won't save any money by doing them yourself, nor are you likely to get professional, long lasting results.

[Bhigdog]

Roger that.......Bob.

[Friartuck]

I agree with Restorer 32 and Bob, send them out to a reputable plater. The difference if in the first plated coating, the copper layer. The caswell system doesn't strike into the metal the way commercial platers do (they have the right acid bath). True, the better the preparation you do, the better the final finish will turn out, and presumably since the plater is doing less work, should save a few rubles along the way.

Chris

[Guest imported_pete324rock]

triple that for me-I'm the kinda guy that fix a lot of things and love to do the work myself but I studied plating till I was blued in the face-i sure learned a lot especially to know what you are paying for and what you expect to get but in the long run its best to let a "reputable" shop handle it.The only way I could see myself saving was in the prep work-just like body work-only metal!