Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[baconsdozen]

I had a conversation the other day with a fellow old car enthusiast who works for a large company as a chemist. I told him about the stainless bumpers I had made for my car as I'd heard reports that modern chroming was inferior to the old. He argued that this is not the case and that modern chrome has to contend with pollution that simply wasn't there years ago and as a result has a much harder time and shorter life span. He also said that modern rubber is possibly affected in the same way,but his experience and expertise is with metals.
I would respect his view,he is highly qualified in his field and he maintains that if anything modern chrome is better than the old if carried out correctly.Apparently chrome always has micro cracks in it but modern materials and plating mean these are much more controlled than in days gone by.
Any thoughts?.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

[Ashley]

It's not so much the quality of chroming or the process that makes more recent efforts worse so much as the quality of the workmanship and the state of the metal being done.

IMO the biggest single problem facing anyone trying to rebuild old cars is the quality of the work at every stage. There are real craftsmen out there, but far more are slovenly and inept and as the Dunning Kruger experiment showed, the more useless you are the higher the opinion you have of your ability, so no only do many do a crap job, but they think it's a good one.

Google Dunning Kruger and watch a YouTube video. It will help.

[Keith D]

Bakersdozen, I was surprised to read your chemist friend's comments regarding pollution causing the short life of modern chrome.

Here in Perth there is very little pollution in the air. We have virtually no manufacturing and we are a windy city. Western Australia is almost a million square miles and has a total population of about 2.5 million. There are many Jaguars (for example) that were supplied with very good chroming in the nineteen sixties and have not been re-chromed since, yet still have a perfect finish. Re-chroming done on my cars in the last seven or so years has to be checked and polished regularly to keep surface rust at bay. So I don't know how pollution gets into the equation.

At one stage almost every suburb had it's own chrome plater; now there are very few in Western Australia. I have been told that many were forced out of business by horrendous restrictions and the need to spend thousands on pollution reduction at the point of chroming. This had effectively allowed the remaining chrome platers to charge whatever they like and give you a sub-standard job. The current cost of a bumper re-chrome for a small car is in the vicinity of $1000. (Approaching 500 pounds of your money) Any panel work or welding is on top of this.

Keith

[Ray White]

I'm no expert but I would have thought it was down to a) preparation and b) thickness. No, not the IQ of the workmen but the number of microns. A good copper thickness which can be used to polish out imperfections and provide a good key for the next coat; nickel. The top coat of chrome is usually quite thin but if the part doesn't get a good dipping time it could come out too thin.

The cowboys usually miss out the copper coating. I always go to Derby Plating because they are recommend by Rolls Royce and Bentley owners and although they are undoubtedly expensive, the quality is a thing of beauty.

I have had my Swallow rad shell re chromed £400 and my (steel) Dodge Brothers rad shell nickel plated £700.

[exbmc]

Another compliment for Derby plating. About five years ago, the owner of an aircraft engine, I was overhauling, wanted the four inlet pipes chroming.
These were only mild steel, and dating from about 1971, with some serious pitting. I took them along for advice, and they said all the pitts would be buffed clean, then smoothed with copper, before chroming.
We went ahead, and were very pleased with the results. The bill was about £250 if I remember right. The pipes still look great, so some modern chrome is ok.

[baconsdozen]

A fair while back I bought some chromed bumpers for my ex london taxi cab. These rusted within days and it wasn't due to lack of cleaning or atmospheric pollution but because they were rubbish with no copper plate at all under the chrome.The chrome left was so thin and weak that wet and dry removed it easily.
I think some plating is inferior due to bad workmanship and/or the methods used (as per my bumpers) but there are people who despite restrictions imposed in recent times can still do a good job.
Pollution possibly hurries along corrosion on modern cars and we probably use more salt on the roads than years ago,but I remember vauxhalls in the 60s that had managed to start rusing seemingly in the dealers showrooms.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).