Be aware (if you're not already) that potmetal tends to
have impurities that manifest themselves in the surface of
the metal under teh original chrome as pits and resemble
mettalurgical acne.
A pitted piece often has to have the cancerous metal lesion
removed and then re-filled with brass. I have seen several
specialists that do nothing but this sort of work, and it
is expensive.
If you have a pitted piece, you can tell because it has
little teensy bubbles in the metal, not just a dull finish.
Stripping the chrome off and just rechroming yeilds a new
looking piece with pimples and cavities, so do your
research well, and ask about payment/return/redo policies
in the case that you are not satisfied with the work.
A search for plating and dipping at hemmings.com yeilded
the following, including pot-metal specialists:
http://cars.hemmings.com/hemmings/searches/services/searchdisplay.cfm?search=servicesoffered&displaystring=SV%26A1
Good luck to you.
-Kenyon
--- Maxiudo Ulrich <mind_probe@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> fellow imperialists,
>
> i'm at the point now where the mechanical restoration of
> my '62 crown is
> finished and my car has recently had all the trim removed
> in preparation for
> additional sanding before being painted. the trim
> appears very presentable,
> but i'd like to maintain this '62 forever and i never
> want to have to remove
> the trim again. the pot metal pieces are in the "worst"
> shape. i'm
> thinking of having some of the heavier pot metal pieces
> re-chromed.
>
> i live in tennessee, and all the local plating companies
> tell me that
> re-chroming pot metal takes a lot of highly regulated epa
> equipment given
> the cyanide used in the process. i have a good company
> in nashville, tn,
> that i've used for both grille inserts and grille
> surrounds, but it cost
> nearly $1000.00 to rechrome these pot metal pieces. i'm
> wondering if
> someone knows a less expensive but still quality outfit
> that might cost
> substantially less. whether its to nashville or
> somewhere else, i'd still
> have to ship the parts so i'm not saving any money that
> way. if anyone has
> had pot metal pieces on a '62 rechromed, i'd like to know
> what was paid for
> the service.
>
> the groups' advice on chrome-plating pot metal
> experiences would be greatly
> appreciated. i know you can't just do once piece without
> throwing off the
> whole side of a car, so its in for a penny, in for a
> pound.
>
> thanks for your input.
>
> best regards,
>
> max
>
>
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