Chrome plating and re-chroming

[ferretjuggler]

Can anyone who has had re-chroming done lately please give me some ball park figures for the work.
Any maybe recomendations of good plating companies in the Midlands area please.
I've got several jobs to be getting on with which involve quite rare/expensive bits (well, expensive by my frugal standards anyway)
Among the parts I need doing are :- silencers (rare ray guns off my T150), wheel rims (light rusting/lifting chrome),
and the exhaust headers and mudguards off a rare (but possibly unmentionable Japanes twin).

I fully realise that the economics of (re) chroming have changed radically since I was a young man.
Chrome plating was cheap then, but now it might be more economical simply to fit modern stainless rims instead.
If I can get some idea of pricing from here, I'll be forewarned when taking my bits to the platers.

[Spaceman]

I normally use Marque Restore in Coventry for any chroming I need done - they always produce top quality results. However, the last time I used them was pre-pandemic and typical prices at that time were:

exhaust downpipe - £26
silencer (including repairs) - £70
petrol tank - £230
kickstart - £20

They may not be the cheapest or the fastest but I've always been satisfied with them - and I get to have a good look at all the Land Rovers they've got in for restoring!!

[Spaceman]

Meant to indicate the above prices were ex-VAT. My normal guide was, although it might be slightly cheaper to re-chrome silencers or wheel rims, for example, than to buy new, I tended to go for new if they were available.

[EDDIE SIMPSON]

i wouldnt bother with re chroming the raygun silencers as ran my triple with them years ago. the metal is so thin they eventually blow around the outside top of the silencer due to the heat cycles. there was a company in new zealand making fine replicas but i dont know if they are still around.

[cdsdorset]

You can buy new Raymond silencers. They are made in Birmingham as far as I remember.

[mo goldie]

Just had a set of 3 full length Exhaust`s pipes chromed by castle Chrome the did do a lovely job but had a lot of emails to and throw before they done them as at one stage they wanted to send them back to be re-worked but said it would cost a packet to keep doing that so they did Chrome them in the end. and took 12 weeks or more cost was £849 with postage with Vat ..... I put them on yesterday and they do look the Dogs.

[ferretjuggler]

That's the sort of prices I keep hearing about !
I suppose all I can do is shop around and hope I get some old school prices somewhere.
I heard of a guy with a Suzuki GT750 (a very chrome heavy bike I admit) paying out £2500 on just one bike.

[Spaceman]

You have to bear in mind that the cost of re-chroming a particular item will come down to the man-hours required to repair, strip and then highly polish the item prior to chrome plating. Sometimes, if the surface is pitted, it may require considerable copper plating to build up a good enough polished surface. Once prepared, the remaining cost will then come down to the number of square inches to be re-chromed.

In the past, I've expected to pay up to £500 to re-chrome all the parts on a 1960's BSA or Triumph bike although it many cases it cost half of that. As said, it's usually been more cost effective to replace old items with new ones if they can still be bought.

[ferretjuggler]

Yes, I accept everything you say, but I'm still getting wildly conflicted reports of chroming costs.
I know that many plating firms don't like used exhausts, because oil residue, rust, and soot inside that can contaminate the electrolite.
Some may refuse exhaust parts altogether, or leave them until the electrolite is due to be changed anyway.
I'd never take heavily pitted wheel rims to a chromer, as an over-zealous polisher, determined to polish out every last pit, can leave the metal dangerously thin, so thin that the spoke nipples will just pull through the rim.
A load of good money thrown after bad.

The proverbial can of worms indeed
.
I've got a pair of Japanese silencers that I may yet attempt to repair.
At 50 years old they are amazingly rot free and solid.
I'm going to slice them in half length wise, knock out the dents as well as possible, clean out the crud, and fix the loose baffles.
Then I'll weld them back together again.
Too much work to save £200 ?
Maybe, but I like fixing original bits

[cdsdorset]

Many chromers won't do wheel rims anymore as to polish them properly actually rips their mops to pieces.

[Spaceman]

I've only ever got one set of wheel rims polished and that was because they were no longer available. Of the £70 it cost me to get the silencer mentioned re-chromed, £10 of the cost was to clean out the inside. I think that particular silencer had a big dent in it which they repaired and the result was as good as new.

[mo goldie]

well as I said at the chromes would not even except my Exhausts unless I cleaned them out first and then they would not do any repairs to them. it just seemed as if they wanted them perfect just to put the shinny stuff on and most of the polishing was all ready done for them along with the repairs like small dents etc, they started saying they would be £150 a pipe and there is 3 pipes, after 2 weeks that went up to £200 a pipe due to they say the cost of copper going up in price, anyway after about 13 weeks or so and loads of emails to say what's going on I got them back at £849 that was less the cost of postage and ins which came to £129....so this chrome lark is Not cheap if you are restoring a motorcycle, but as I say I am well happy Now they are done and on the bike and looks Great. 

[MJM_58SR]

I've used quality chrome at Hull quite a few times. Have had rims, 2 stroke silencers (dirty) A10 tank side panels recently (£200). They also do polishing. I've found them to be good, decent turnaround and honest about what they can do.