Chrome Plating of Door Frames

[richard sprint]

I visited a plating shop yesterday to show the pitting on the two door frames - (sprint dhc).
He said he thought they were quite bad (heavily pitted) and would best be re brassed before applying the chrome.

No problem with that as this is an important part to get right - however I was quite suprised by the price of ?100 for the pair.

Having had no experience with chrome work but have heard some horror storys I thought this was too cheap!?

There were plenty of car parts there so it seems they know their business....

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

I think I'd ask another plating company for a second oppinion.
I've heard of "decorative Brass plating" but how they do it eludes me
Brass being an alloy cannot normally be deposited via electro chemical processes.
The top process for steel is:-
1. Copper plate
2. Nickel plate
3. Chrome plate

With Brass I guess that just Chrome plating would do the job well

What is re-brassing please?

Elan door / window frames are tricky to re-chrome. The upper parts are made from Brass & the lower parts from steel; both of which need different electrical currents (I'm told) so care has to be taken to avoid what they call "Burning"

I'm sure there are guys on here with more knowledge of the subject.
Good luck
John

[richard sprint]

John

Interesting point about the different materials i.e. brass and steel. He did say that he could not do the entire frame and so I considered that the below door section could be protected by other than Chrome.

Do not know what is meant by re brassing - good question and have no answer...

[memnon]

I have a fair bit of experience of platers. Never have they suggested Brass.

Heavy Copper is the process, as it builds up to fill most of the gaps.

I usually use Marque Restore near Coventry, they do have a website, but it isn't that good. I expect to pay about double what you have been quoted for my pair of doors frames

[Gordon Sauer]

Recently got mine back at $100 each with no mention of chroming entire piece being a problem and in fact it got the rust of the lower rail, where pulley is--he just said they would not polish that section. They did the handles separately but included in the price. Mine not pitted but on light bezels on my other Lotus, +2, I was offered to strip and brass, then I could fill pits or they knew somebody to send to for pit filling, and then bring them back for chroming. This stripping and intermediary brassing you are talking about is probably that--it is the point you have to reach where the holes can be filled. Gordon Sauer

[GrUmPyBoDgEr]

The German company that re-chromed my frames reported the problems with the different materials mentioned in my previous posting.
However they did manage to re-chrome them completely.
Unfortunately some part of the process managed to strip the thread out of a couple of the nuts which retain the door locks & a couple of the studs for the cable pulleys were so eaten away so that they could no longer retain the circlips.
All easily replaced if you have a friendly machine shop, but big problems if you don't.
Yup things can go wrong, but that's Elan restoration.

Cheers
John

[Elanintheforest]

Richard, definately use a specialist such as Marque Restore. They understand the value of the parts being re-done, take more care of your bits and produce a better result. They are set up to restore, which requires a lot of preparation work. Every town has a chrome plater, and most of them are used to doing commercial work on new items...bathroom fittings and suchlike. Restoration work on sometimes delicate pieces is a very different process, and like paintwork, the finished result is only as good as the preparation work that's gone into it... that's the big difference between the companies.

Mark

[richard sprint]

Thanks for posts - Richard