Letter 093

Brush plating for automotive parts

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Hello...I was at the SEMA auto show a couple of weeks ago and there was 2-3 companies selling a brush plating set-up. The prices varied wildly ! Is there a simple way to homebuild one of these ? I am not interested in doing this as a full time business , only on some of my own items I sell at the swap meet. It would be nice if it was portable thanks for your help....Chris

Chris Morley

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Hello Chris. One thing to realize is that of all plating jobs perhaps the one "easy" one is replating car emblems. The reason it's easy, besides the fact that they're small, is that you start with an item that already has an OEM high quality plating job on it, 99 percent of which you're leaving just as is, and all you're during is removing a few millionths of an inch of chrome from the top and replacing it with a few millionths of an inch of gold.

The polishing, the buffing, the cleaning, the activating, the copper plating, the semi-bright nickel plating, the bright nickel plating ... they were already done for you! If all you want to do is replace the chromium topcoat on beautifully plated parts with gold, not much to it and probably any cheap equipment will offer you a good shot.

 

Otherwise, plating may not be a great hobby:

 

- A great deal of technical knowledge is required to deposit a bright plate that will not peel off. And it usually many layers of different plating. For starters you need to know the metallurgy of the parts to be plated (you can't plate zinc diecastings, aluminum, stainless steel, cast iron, or previously painted or plated parts without special prep cycles). It is very possible to do quality brush plating, but some of the cheap kits and chemicals you see mass marketed, and the techniques suggested, will produce junk that peels right off if you're not starting with a part that's already well plated.

- Some of the chemicals required for *real* plating are dangerous, aggressive, and regulated; and you are neither allowed to hold on to the waste products nor dispose of them without a license.

You may wish to get the book Electrochemical Metallizing by Marv Rubinstein to learn about brush plating, or to contact such manufacturers of brush plating equipment as Brooktronics [Valencia, CA], Gold Touch [Cleveland, OH], LDC [Cleveland, OH], Sifco [Independence, OH]. Good luck.

Ted Mooney, P.E.  finishing.com Brick, NJ

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