IML: Mobile detailers plate, they don't anodize

[Kenyon Wills <imperialist1960@xxxxxxxxx>]

Careful on that mobile detailer source:  That process
is gold plating using electrical current and a liquid
bath that has gold particulate suspended in it that
adheres/plates the emblem.  

It only works with Chrome or steel as far as I know,
might work on aluminum, but will give a non-stock,
glitzy vega$ look.  

Very few auto emblems these days are aluminum because
it is such a soft metal that deforms easily.  The 1960
LeBaron emblems are murder to take off straight and
are scarce because people use too much force to remove
them and rip them up in the process of removal (ask me
how I know).

Chances are that the source to use will be in a
commercial park with giant vats that have electrical
currents running through them.  Wonderful chemical
aromas, but I wouldn't want to work there.  A distant
relative of the chroming process.

There was a mouthwash/toothpaste commercial awhile
back where they painted liquid onto a cylindrical
piece of white classroom chalk and then broke it in
half to reveal a cross-section where the mouth-goo had
soaked in below the surface?  Well that's what goes on
with anodizing as far as I understand it.  

The coloration is a dye of some sort that penetrates
the pores of the metal somehow and gives the lustre
that you see.  It happens due to mild electrical
current.  Scratch the surface and it's aluminum color
underneath - as seen on anodized bicycle rims where
the brake pad wears the surface down.

That's as good as I can do - it's been 15 years since
I was last dealing with that stuff, so this is all
from memory.

 

=====
Kenyon Wills
 
 






















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