Chrome / Black-Nickel Plating

I have a new frame coming through to me (old Carlton, ebay).

The seller is sending through chrome plated forks with it, but apparenly these are in a bit of a sorry state.

Is it worth getting the forks re-plated? Argos would charge £75, which I am not sure I could justify.

Is it sacrilege to strip the forks and just get them resprayed?

old chrome even if it looks dead, comes up really good with a bit of a polish. new chrome finish is no-where near as good as it would have been originally!!! i'd say leave it and definitely don't paint. geez the stuff on my holdsworth is over 40 years old and looks fine.

And which polish would I be using for this, please?

You could also talk to Witcomb (south London) - they have someone they use for rechroming etc, might be cheaper than Argos as theres no shipping involved.

i got my forks chromed at tregunna. very pleased
hatton row nw8
£40.

if you go to a frame builder they will charge you more than an normal electroplating place.

Cheers lpg...

I will have a look when it arrives...

Use autosol. Get it from halfords, put it on with a toothbrush and leave it for half an hour (tea time) then polish it off. Repeat until the pit marks go. If it's badly pitted, get it replated.

The chromed BMX i found came up really nicely with that method.
Pity i have little interest in BMX.

Chris

autosol or brasso or any metal polish at a hardware store

I would polish too stuff comes up well. Chroming is a super nasty process best not to do to unnecessary.

There's a place on the old kent road (near hertz car rental) that specialise in chroming things up. don;t know how much they charge as they're funny about giving quote (even rough estimates) unless they have the item in front of them. i guess it depends on all sorts and they don;t want to be misleading.

They are called London Chrome, used them to re-chrome and plate some of the parts of my Lambretta, they are NOT cheap.

post some pics then we can say whether its worthwhile or not!

Hmm... given the postal strike it could be quite a time...

trust me, tregunna are the best around, and they are central. otherwise, you have to go to slough, there are loads there.

Tregunna Chrome of London

6-8 Hatton Row, Hatton Street, London, NW8 8PP
Tel: 020 7262 5678 | Fax: 020 7724 2354

Does the £40 at Tregunna include stripping the paint?

i don't think so, i gave it to them bare.

they still have to prep it, though...bead blasting doesn't strip it well enough.

Pic of front of scooter... only chrome bit i have a pic of is the headlamp ring.

nice, would look good boned down and turned into an up-hill racer..;^)

Well... the new machine has arrived. And I am a little bit amazed. The whole frame is chromed... THE WHOLE FRAME. And it is in really good nick.

But the forks are not. I presume that these will need to be replated... or replaced...

But overall I am kind of amazed... £26 + p&P

i reckon the forks will come up fine with a bit of a clean with metal polish. thats an awesome buy though. are the forks drilled?

nice boardroom ;).

Yep... Forks drilled - although I will probably have to re-drill if I want to fit a 105...

yeah just the back of the forks. i just sold me last old-school weinmann front caliper to hippo. if you want i've got a couple weinmann rear ones, but you'd have to replace the central bolt with something longer

I have got weinmann ones that I can use...

I kind of want this to be as top-dollar as I can afford.

top-dollar and road conversion don't really go hand in hand, i'm sorry :(