man314
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1964 Shasta 16-SC
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Post by man314 on Nov 13, 2014 13:27:58 GMT -8
 Quickly questions, is this grab bar too far gone with pitting, etc or could it be sanded, filled, and re chromed? What at is approximate expense to do so? Anyone have any chromers that do great work at a reasonable price? |
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mobiltec
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Post by mobiltec on Nov 13, 2014 16:07:15 GMT -8
These days chrome is VERY expensive. And if you just have that one handle done it's TOO expensive. Take some #0000 steel wool to it and apply elbow grease and see how it comes out. I've gotten stuff like that to look really good that way. Then if you still don't like it you can probably find a nicer one somewhere like Ebay or something.
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Post by vikx on Nov 13, 2014 21:46:01 GMT -8
I agree, the basic handle looks fine. A few pits add character. Anything can be improved.
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man314
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Post by man314 on Nov 14, 2014 5:50:39 GMT -8
Thx! Love a little character.
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ladywendolyn
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Post by ladywendolyn on Nov 14, 2014 11:52:14 GMT -8
The other option is to buy a replacement.. I stalked etsy and e-bay for quite a while. I gave up as soon as the bids went over $50.00. I eventually scored one ( during an auction that ended at weird hours) in very good condition in my price range.
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mobiltec
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Post by mobiltec on Nov 14, 2014 16:00:04 GMT -8
Please let us know how the steel wool and elbow grease plan works out. A photo would be great too. This way we will have an indicator for when things are just too far gone for steel wool. I've brought back stuff that looked worse than yours and everyone thought I had it chromed. Just a matter of the age of the pitts, the thickness of the plating and the type of errosion that caused the pitting in the first place.
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man314
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Post by man314 on Nov 14, 2014 16:44:53 GMT -8
Please let us know how the steel wool and elbow grease plan works out. A photo would be great too. This way we will have an indicator for when things are just too far gone for steel wool. I've brought back stuff that looked worse than yours and everyone thought I had it chromed. Just a matter of the age of the pitts, the thickness of the plating and the type of errosion that caused the pitting in the first place. Will do. Sounds like a job for my wife! |
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John Palmer
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Post by John Palmer on Nov 14, 2014 21:31:19 GMT -8
You might want to just shoot it with three coats of primer, sand with 320 grit paper, shoot three more coats of primer, and sand it again. It's best to use a two part catalyzed epoxy primer. Then shoot a coat of Argent Silver wheel paint on it, that comes in a spray can from any auto parts store.
My concern is if the chrome starts to peal off from all of your steel wooling, and/or sanding the chrome pieces are sharp as razors.
A chrome shop is going to ask several hundred dollars to re-plate that piece, because of all the pitting, not worth it.
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Post by vikx on Nov 14, 2014 22:26:17 GMT -8
Paint certainly is another option and I've seen good results. You can resort to that if the polishing doesn't go as expected...
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mobiltec
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Post by mobiltec on Nov 15, 2014 5:36:52 GMT -8
Yep I've painted a few of them also. But only after all else fails.
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man314
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Post by man314 on Nov 23, 2014 6:26:52 GMT -8
  Top picture is before on grab handle and bottom two are where I am now with a variety of techniques to shine it up. My wife thinks it looks good, I'm not as enthusiastic. Here's what I didn't: - Spent 20 min or so with 0000 steel wool . . . That wasn't doing much for pitted areas
- Read up on line where people were having luck with Diet Coke and aluminum foil . . . That actually lessened the pits
- Then I mixed it up with Diet Coke, aluminum foil, and steel wool
- Still not making required progress, so I went conventional with tightly wound buffing wheel and the light gray buffing compound
- Looks good from a distance, and Pitts are smoother, but may need to go down the path or tech riming
Anyone else have some thoughts?
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man314
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Post by man314 on Nov 23, 2014 6:28:38 GMT -8
 Btw, the Shasta emblem cleaned up pretty good with this process |
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man314
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Post by man314 on Nov 23, 2014 7:01:20 GMT -8
 Here are all the parts I worked on. Not perfect, but not bad considering years of exposures to the elements in Wisconsin |
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John Palmer
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Post by John Palmer on Nov 23, 2014 10:24:18 GMT -8
It really does not matter if we are talking about sanding wood, polishing aluminum, or preparing steel, or brass for chrome plating, the prep process is still the same. You cannot shine up the top surface until you remove "all the craters", in the case of this handle they are pits caused by the chrome being perforated by rust and corrosion from the years of salt and weather. At some point the chrome on your handle will start chipping/flaking off, and it will be "very sharp" and dangerous.
To repair this handle, it has to have all the remaining chrome finish chemically removed by acid at a chroming shop. Then they will sand the pot metal to remove some of the pitting. Then they will drop it into their copper plating tank for a coat of copper. Then they will hand and machine sand the excess copper from the handle. They will keep repeating the copper plating/hand sanding/copper plating/hand sanding until they actually build up the metal in every one of those tiny pits. It's dirty nasty hard tedious work. It's also expensive due to the time required and the very hazardous chemicals used. When they are finally happy with the smooth surface quality they will dip it into the nickel tank, then the final coat is done in the chrome tank. One of the problems with re-chroming a small part is you will loose much of the small detail during the process of repairing the pits from the sanding and copper build up. The part originally just received what is called a flash chrome finish. Which is a type of cheap production chroming.
Just buy another handle on eBay, even at $50 you will still be money ahead.
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