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Platers

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:25 pm
by iwally
Hi all,

Well I've gathered all the chrome and am trying to face-up to the having it plated. I solicited bids via email from a few platers that seem like they might have a good reputation and regularly do this type of work (auto/marine restoration). Among these was "JR Custom Plating" in North Branch, MN (John Colton is owner name on website) who advertises on ACBS.org and on this site Chris-craft.org. However I haven't seen them mentioned in any post. Has anyone out there had work done by them?

thanks

Re: Platers

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 1:55 pm
by tuobanur
I haven't but I can tell you who I used that did excellent work at a very good price; Palm Beach Plating, (561) 863-5760.

Re: Platers

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 2:10 pm
by Chad Durren
I just used JR Custom Plating for 32 pieces of chrome and I'm very pleased. Fantastic work, sensible turnaround, and reasonably priced. I will use them again. Their attention to the pot metal pieces was outstanding.

Re: Platers

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 8:56 pm
by Pete DeVito
I have used Spacecoast Plating for several jobs with great success.
ph 321-254-2880 David Pratt
http://www.spacecoast-plating.com
Pete

Re: Platers

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2015 10:30 pm
by Al Benton
I had a local guy here in St. Louis finish the hardware for the Connie a few years back. The guy had an excellent reputation with auto restoration shops and was reasonably priced. He did great work, I was happy, and the boat looked amazing. However, the chokes and cleats didn't hold up too well. Being a cruiser that lived in the water year round the chrome wore away from the mooring lines rubbing constantly. His work may have been fine for a trailered boat but the chrome was a little too thin on those cleats and chokes. The rest of the hardware still looked good the last time I saw her.

Lay your hardware out, take photos of it and inventory it before shipping it. It will help the plating company keep tabs on your parts and pieces and assure you of getting all of them back.

Re: Platers

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 8:22 am
by iwally
You know I started wondering about a couple of things ..

1) How long does a "good" plating job last? .. on wear points like chocks and/or decorative bits
granted there's a deal of difference between a boat like Al's, in service 12 months of the year, and say a summer only boat
possibly changes within the industry too
still it would be interesting to hear more from those who had their chrome plated say 5-10+ years ago

2) Whether it was possible to tell a good job from a not-so-good job
(other than obvious things like bare areas, bubbles, wrinkles, sags, pits, unevenness, etc)

Re: Platers

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 5:03 pm
by drrot
iwally wrote:You know I started wondering about a couple of things ..

2) Whether it was possible to tell a good job from a not-so-good job
(other than obvious things like bare areas, bubbles, wrinkles, sags, pits, unevenness, etc)
Plating is something where you get what you pay for. Put a nice show plated part next to a standard plating job and it is night and day difference. To the eye and pocketbook.

Re: Platers

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 8:39 am
by iwally
Al,

Your post started me thinking about the expected life of a typical plating job. Looking at my chocks with the original factory chrome - the chrome is rubbed off inside the scallop where the lines play, as with yours. Our boat was at dock 3 months (25%) of each year for 20 years - which would amount to 5 years of wear if it were held at dock year round (as in your case).

Is it the case that others you have seen are getting longer wear from their 'modern' plating jobs?

Re: Platers

Posted: Fri Mar 06, 2015 6:20 pm
by Al Benton
I recall that some of my hardware was rough, with scaling and pitting. The guy ground, filled, polished and plated them all smooth and bright. All work appeared to be top shelf from my observation. The guy was accustom to doing work for top notch auto restorers, mostly grills, bumpers, door handles and such. I don't know if there are different grades or thicknesses of the final chrome layer or not by plating companies that do plating for marine hardware.

I feel that my hardware appeared to be as professionally done as any hardware that I have observed at shows, but they certainly weren't compared side by side. How does one know what he paid for until a cleat starts showing up dull, and then showing brass color where a mooring line was just doing its job.

Re: Platers

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 9:26 am
by iwally
Al Benton wrote:.. I don't know if there are different grades or thicknesses of the final chrome layer or not by plating companies that do plating for marine hardware.
From what little I've learned about plating it seems to have something in common with alchemy.
finishing.com wrote: Decorative chrome plating is sometimes called nickel-chrome plating because it always involves electroplating nickel onto the object before plating the chrome (it sometimes also involves electroplating copper onto the object before the nickel, too). The nickel plating provides the smoothness, much of the corrosion resistance, and most of the reflectivity. The chrome plating is exceptionally thin, measured in millionths of an inch rather than in thousandths.
http://www.finishing.com/faqs/chrome.html (note the discussion of show chrome on this page looks at it from an OEM large production line on steel point of view; author subsequently clarified that custom platers use one heavier layer of nickel)
Al Benton wrote:.. How does one know what he paid for until a cleat starts showing up dull, and then showing brass color where a mooring line was just doing its job.
I don't really think one can know with certainty. Apparently we can only increase the odds by following reputation. I suspect that your job was not out of the ordinary. Come to think of it, most of these highly re-chromed boats are likely not cruisers and spend most of the time in slings or on the trailer not riding the dock. Meanwhile I think I want some fuzzy soft felt sleeves for my chocks :wink: