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  •  » "Chrome" at home

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    1/04/2014 11:06 AM  #1

    Hakan
    FYI FORD Moderator

    Offline

    From: Enköping, Sweden
    Registered: 4/01/2013
    Posts: 807

    "Chrome" at home

    Been playing with a "Ultimate Replica Chrome Plating Kit" and a "Bright Copper Plating Kit" that I bought from http://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/ and I have to say that I am pretty satisfied with the results even if it's a time consuming process to get there.

    Reason I wanted to do this is all the polished bolt heads, nuts, etc. I have everywhere on my 67 Mustang that probably would look very bad in a short while as their surfaces are not protected in any. I was thinking about clear coating them  for a while and also sending them out to have them chromed, but in the true DIY spirit I finally decided to buy the kits mentioned above.

    Here's my plating setup:


    1. Electro cleaning bath with one tablespoon of washing soda/gallon of tap water. The anodes are steel and I run this using 12 volts. I later replaced the washing soda electro cleaning bath with a GP1 alkaline electro cleaning bath, but the results from the initial cleaning is pretty much the same.

    2. Acid Pickle bath to activate the surface of the parts prior to plating.

    3. Rinse bath with distilled water.

    4. Replica Chrome bath.

    5. Copper plating bath.

    6. Power supply made from a desktop PC power supply unit that puts out 3.3, 5.0 and 12 volts.

    Here's the end result on a couple of M10 bolts, a very shiny and hard surface with good coverage that hopefully will last a while:



    There's a lot of youtube.com videos on this electro plating subject available if you want to look deeper into it. Here's also a good instruction: http://www.instructables.com/id/Chrome-Plating-of-Car-Headlights-and-Parts/?ALLSTEPS on how to electroplate car parts.
    The company I bought my kits from, http://www.gaterosplating.co.uk/ also have a lot of products for other kinds of plating than copper and nickel and they also have a great customer service. All my emails sent to them were answered with good and useful info within 24 hours.

    I have no experience from these, but products similar products to the ones I used seems to be available from them:
    http://www.caswellplating.com/
    http://dalmar.net/
    http://www.eastwood.com/eastwood-s-tin-zinc-electroplating-system.html
    http://www.frost.co.uk/automotive-electroplating.html
    http://www.janekits.com.au/mainframe.php
    http://www.micromark.com/plating-and-etching.html
     
     

     

    1/04/2014 11:10 AM  #2

    josh-kebob
    Senior 24-7 FYI Addict

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    From: Madison, AL
    Registered: 4/06/2013
    Posts: 2,902

    Re: "Chrome" at home

    Hakan,

    I want to party with you man............................!!!!!!!!!!

     

    1/04/2014 12:48 PM  #3

    jkordzi
    I FYI 24-7

    Offline

    From: Dallas, TX
    Registered: 12/28/2013
    Posts: 923

    Re: "Chrome" at home

    Very nice - do you copper plate before the Cr?  How do you dispose of the spent chemicals?

    Cheap, Fast, Good:  Pick Any Two
     

    1/04/2014 1:14 PM  #4

    Xargon321
    FYI FORD Member

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    Registered: 4/02/2013
    Posts: 49

    Re: "Chrome" at home

    yes thats what most chromer do they will copper coat a item to make a good surface for the chrome and smooth out inperfections. also you should find out what to put on the threads to keep the copper and chrome from sticking because that will mess up the threads when you try and use them.

     

    1/04/2014 1:31 PM  #5

    Pete M
    FYI FORD Member

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    Registered: 4/01/2013
    Posts: 76

    Re: "Chrome" at home

    Walter White would be proud!

     

    1/04/2014 3:13 PM  #6

    RPM, aka Bearing Bob
    Senior 24-7 FYI Addict

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    From: Bakersfield, Ca
    Registered: 9/17/2013
    Posts: 3,230

    Re: "Chrome" at home

    Very nice work Hakan! What's your making address so I can send a bucket of fasteners to you? 
    How much cash do you have in the set up?

    Bob. 69 Mach 1, 393W, SMOD Toploader, Armstrong  steering, factory AC.
     

    1/04/2014 3:39 PM  #7

    Hakan
    FYI FORD Moderator

    Offline

    From: Enköping, Sweden
    Registered: 4/01/2013
    Posts: 807

    Re: "Chrome" at home

    josh-kebob wrote:

    Hakan, I want to party with you man............................!!!!!!!!!!

    Anytime, Josh!

    jkordzi wrote:

    Very nice - do you copper plate before the Cr? How do you dispose of the spent chemicals?

    After cleaning, pickling, rinsing I put on a coat of "replica chrome" (it's actually a nickel/cobolt mix) then if needed a layer of copper, then polish it, pickle and rinse again. Finally back in the nickel/cobolt bath to get the chrome look. We have this local recycling station here in town where it's possible to get rid of everything, even dangerous chemicals and it's BTW for free too :-).

    Xargon321 wrote:

    also you should find out what to put on the threads to keep the copper and chrome from sticking because that will mess up the threads when you try and use them.

    Yep, but so far I've only experienced some problems with fine threads, so I just tried to put on some duct tape and it worked great.

    rpm wrote:

    Very nice work Hakan! What's your making address so I can send a bucket of fasteners to you? How much cash do you have in the set up?

    Thanks, unfortunately I wouldn't consider doing this for someone else, too time consuming... I spent around $600 for the whole setup and it's enough chemicals included to plate around 20 square foot.

       •Thread Starter
     

    1/04/2014 3:43 PM  #8

    RPM, aka Bearing Bob
    Senior 24-7 FYI Addict

    Offline

    From: Bakersfield, Ca
    Registered: 9/17/2013
    Posts: 3,230

    Re: "Chrome" at home

    No no no, I was just teasing

    Bob. 69 Mach 1, 393W, SMOD Toploader, Armstrong  steering, factory AC.
     

     

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