44068

HARD GOLD ELECTROPLATING  

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Hi, I have just purchased my first lowrider (64 Impala)and was keen to get a few parts gold plated to set the car off.As I ALWAYS want the best deal I can possibly get I did a bit of research on gold plating and electroplating in general.I soon discovered that their are a various types of quality and ways of applying gold plating.I contacted a place that specified in electroplating to do some hard gold plating and was soon discouraged by the high prices(what did I expect),this got me to thinking and then looking at purchasing my own electroplating setup.As I have a lot of friends with cars I thought this would be a worthy investment,especially if I can buy the setup for the price I was quoted to plate a few accessories in my engine bay.So basically I'm looking for some PROFESSIONAL advice on what sort of kit might be ideal for a home business (I am ideally looking at doing the best quality finish I can as far as I know this is hard gold plating),remember this is a from home business so something not to industrial/big but again I must stress I want quality and need it to be able to handle fair size jobs when needed.I seen an advertisement for a portable gold plating setup that allows you to do selective(brush) gold plating as the gold is applied by a swab,they mentioned that this technique is more durable as cobalt was used in gold or the process which results in a hardier finish as well as the added advantage of being able to select area for plating.Does anyone know if these style plater is convenient for plating larger area surfaces.Many Thanks in advance for any help, Rekoh.
Australia.

Mahlie Bayles
Hobbyist/Consumer - Nimbin New South Wales, Australia

The first thing to check is the laws; contact your local environmental regulatory authority and find out what is lawful and what isn't.

Next, you can learn a good deal about brush (selective) plating from Rubinstein's Electrochemical Metallizing. In that book you will discover brush plating of entire building roofs; anything is possible.

As for price, remember you're dealing with gold, which costs $700 an ounce. Whether the plating shop labor adds $350 an ounce or only $50 an ounce, it's expensive no matter what you do.

At least 90 percent of the effort required in plating is in the preparation. If you are working with good fresh chrome plating, such as the emblems on new cars, it's relatively easy to strip the few millionths of an inch of chrome, and put gold plating in place on top of the perfectly polished nickel plating that underlies it. Working with parts from a 1964 car is a whole different thing. Try to visit a plating shop if you possibly can.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, New Jersey