Is it worth it to re-chrome?

[Agemax]

give them a ring and see what they quote you. where in Cornwall are you? i am always driving round Cornwall every week so if you get stuck for getting up to Plymouth let me know

 

[Guest]

I'm just outside Liskeard - thanks for the offer. If you're in the area, give me a shout. The kettle's always on, and the local pasties are good....

 

[Guest]

When I began my rebuild project - 81 850 GLX, I took off all the chrome,nuts, bolts,fenders, side stand, handlebars,backrest. and brought them in for pricing to Gary's Cycle in Ottawa Canada. Gary does triple plated chrome. He uses 18 different baths. The old chrome is stripped off, then a layer of copper plating, after which repairs to rust blemishes are done, then back to the baths for nickel and chrome plating.It was expensive, a little over 2 grand, however the result is phenomenal. The triple plated chrome will last a lot longer than a commercial grade, and it was twice as much as I thought it would be. But I bit the bullet and have no regrets. He was reluctant to do the exhaust system as the oils would contaminate the baths. As it was, the exhaust, pipes and headers were stolen off my deck early one morning by a scrap metal dealer. I found another set at a junk yard, but the baffles in the pipes were shot. Gary chromed the headers and the side cover plates that I was lucky to find. I cut the mufflers off and had sleeves welded on at the right angle and the nuts for the cover plates. I then bought a set of Mac slip on mufflers with removable baffles.The original mufflers are dimpled to avoid touching the axle nuts, and the Macs are not. I was lucky when fitting it all together as they are about 1/4" away from the axle nuts. Another 2 grand for chromed progressive rear shocks, stainless steel brake lines, tires and miscellaneous parts and about 700 hours in labor over 2 summers and I have a bike that is a real show stopper.All the aluminum was badly tarnished. I hand sanded it with up to 600 grit paper and then buffed and polished til it looks like chrome. It was a learning process and a bit of experimenting but I am a lot faster at it now. Sorry I don't have any pics right now. I will have to figure out how to download them on to the computer and send them. Phred Roseboom

 

[Griffin]

Most chromers won't do exhausts, because as mentioned above, it will contaminate their baths and make them unusable. If they will do the exhaust, you're paying for a full chemical changeout afterwards, which is why it isn't financially feasible for most people.

I'm fortunate enough to live within fifteen miles of the highest density of race shops in the world. There are dozens of shops around here that do work for Indy cars, drag racers, and Sprint Cup cars. I'm doubly fortunate because I've got to know many of them through business dealings, and have been "behind the scenes" in their shops, getting to know the owners and seeing how they do things.

For powder and ceramic coating, I highly recommend these guys:

http://www.paceperformancecoatings.com/

I'm going to talk to them about doing a chrome-looking ceramic coating on an exhaust system I have. They don't show it on their website, but one of their ceramic vendors (cerakote) does offer the color. It'll be a lot cheaper than rechroming (if you can find a chop to do it), and probably end up being more durable.

Jasada Speed Shop, just across the street from Pace Performance, does excellent paint work in the off season. They did the bodywork for my GS1100E several years ago, for about $400:

They don't have a website, but here's an old news story on them. Adam still owns the palce, but Jason tragically died two years ago.

http://www.theindychannel.com/sports/brothers-put-unique-spin-on-indycar-painting

Vance and Hines is right next door to them, which is next door to Schumacher Racing.

 

[850 Combat]

I don't think its worth it, but what can you do? Things I have had re chromed are much better than the low quality plating most bikes built down to a price have. My RD needs the rear fender mount done quite badly. I'm looking for a spare to have done, so that I don't have to leave it apart at all. as to fork tubes, they are hard chromed, and milled. It is a different animal from regular triple plating. I've nickle plated a lot of the suspension on my Lotus, just because the paint kept coming off. Some parts under the hood too, for the same reason. I'm looking into pearl powder coating on aluminum engine covers.