Chrome
 

I have the piece of chrome that goes across the back of the trunk lip as well as the tiny little pieces that tie it in to the taillight trim. Piece of trim is as wide as the trunk and about as thick as my pinkie. End pieces are smaller than my thumb. What do you think is a fair price to get them chromed? They require no repair work.

Are they potmetal or stainless steel? The pieces you describe on my 67 are stainless so you can polish them out. If they are pot metal and you do need them re-chromed, prices vary greatly from place to place so my best advice would be to call and get multiple quotes

If pot metal I'm sure they will have to see it for a good quote.Tom

It’s aluminum. I am having all the trim on the car stainless and everything chromed

Chrome and stainless polishing has went nuts in the past few years. Polishing the trunk stainless if it’s dent free and not scratched up might be $125 and if it’s anodized aluminum maybe $200-$300. Finding someone to polish and chrome it will be fairly easy actually.

A '64 has aluminum trim? I think it's all stainless for those year, but not sure?

Pot metal pieces, whew. It's off the charts these days. I sent some grill surrounds out for quotes and all were in the $700-$1400 range. Insanity. There was very little pitting, and were an easy job IMO, required very little repair.

That was from 3 of the well-known east coast places, I didn't try any in the mid-west and left-coast. Shipping, insurance, and time was also a factor, all of which I could have saved.

I had a local guy do my stainless, it was 'affordable', but the quality was reflected by the price. At least he didn't destroy anything, and it came out great for driver-quality, which is basically what I was looking for. I had the brand new repop stuff polished at the same time so it all matched.

On the grill surrounds I have, I just polished them as best I could and used them. I figure down the road I can go back and replace it if I want.

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Anodized aluminum is a pain to have done, they need to strip, which is the time consuming and dangerous part. If at all possible, if available, replace with stainless.


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No it’s definitely aluminum. I’ve already had some of it played.

Plated not played. The problem I’m having and I guess I’m gonna have to bite the bullet is the chrome shop always wants pictures before he will do a phone estimate. This piece was bought I think from Andre and is packaged like really well. I don’t want to unpack it to take a pic when I can describe it perfectly but I guess I’m gonna have to

Aluminum immediately forms a passive film onto which it is not possible to electroplate. Therefore the first step is to apply a zincate coating. Once the zincate finish is in place typically you either start with cyanide copper before acid copper-nickel-chrome plating or start with alkaline electroless nickel plating before copper-nickel-chrome instead. It is not a simple nor a cheap process for low volume work.


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I think that's why most just anodize aluminum parts. Or, forbid, paint.

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And of interest.... on the subject of "pot metal" plating.

Restoring old zinc die castings ( often called pot metal ) is time consuming, expensive, and requires both the proper equipment and knowledge.

The first step in restoration is to chemically or electrolytically remove the old plating.

Then if the pitting on the zinc die casting is quite deep it is difficult to repair. Many shops use a combination of filling pits, repeated copper plating, polishing grinding etc. as preparation for the final nickel chrome plate.

All this requires toxic chemicals...... HELLO EPA, and a good reason many shops around the country have gone out of business. Then there is abusive California, a state that has some of their own and often over strict regulations., but that's a separate topic !

In short, there are a few shops which can restore your parts to like new condition, and...beware, there are shops which can't.

Video here for one company that does custom work. It shows some of the many different methods:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llTow-Eau7U


(Information provided in this post DOES NOT represent a company endorsement. And unless specified it is not based on personal experience and is offered for general interest only )


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I've had 3 or 4 64's and all those strips were stainless.

I just got off the phone with S&H plating and they confirmed they are aluminum. They can chrome aluminum but the chrome will not stick to stainless

You got some incorrect information; you can chrome stainless steel.

"You got some incorrect information; you can chrome stainless steel."

Correct !

Some plating shops do not have experience with that and therefore do not offer it; but once you find the right shop they will be able to do a quality job. It requires a little different method to activate than carbon steel.


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Well they’ve chromed everything I sent them so far and it has turned out flawless. They did say stainless could be chromed just not by there method. They have done my window trim, drip rails, a pillar pieces and now I am sending them the trunk panel pieces

It would actually be pointless to chrome stainless, just polish it. Polished properly, it's very close to chrome anyway.

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To everyone that has argued that they are stainless you are wrong. Plater just called and confirmed the the trunk lip molding on a 64 Tempest is indeed aluminum. He is plating it now

Which trunk moulding? 1964 I assume. GTO or Tempest?