Chrome plating a bumper with lead filler? Is brazing better?

A. Yes, it's possible; however, very few shops will be able to plate over the combination of lead and steel. Much better to straighten, polish and buff and replate without any lead.

A. I think that plating a steel bumper with lead filling is going to be a tough task. The cleaning and pretreatment processes are completely different. In fact, most plating shops are not going to have a pretreatment for lead. Consequently, you run a high risk of adhesion problems because if you clean the steel properly, you will probably damage the lead. Conversely, if you clean the lead, it may not be aggressive enough to properly clean the steel. Reworked bumpers are typically brazed with brass as opposed to lead repair. I'd replace the lead with brazing and you'll be off to the show.

Good luck!

A. The previous responses are correct. The pretreatment to get correct plating adhesion for lead alloys is far different than for mild steel. Rather than attempting to repair the bumper yourself, use a plating shop that does restoration and will properly fill, grind and polish so that the plating may be done correctly. In the end, this approach will probably not cost more than finding someone to plate what you have correctly.

A. Hi Pat. We appended your inquiry to a thread where several professionals tell us that brazing would be much better than other fillers, and that has been my experience as well.

There is no real limit to the copper plating thickness: wave guides with walls 1/4" thick are electroformed from copper. But the time required in the copper plating tank, and the risk of something going wrong, is in proportion to the thickness -- so it's best to hold it to a couple thousandths of an inch if you can or the cost may get prohibitive.

Regards,