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How come most chrome plated plastic products are not conductive?

October 12, 2011

Hi, I'm trying to nickel plate already chrome plated plastic parts, but I'm having a very hard time understanding why could the chrome plated plastic be non conductive. I thought the reason could be a layer of lacquer or acrylic on top of the chrome layer. However, I tried removing the lacquer layer on few objects. The first one became conductive after few wipes of acetone ⇦this on eBay or Amazon [affil links] Warning! highly Flammable! . All the other parts after that never became conductive.

Is there something that is not conductive but looks like chrome? Or what is it that I'm doing wrong trying to reach the chrome?

Thanks in advance.

Hosam Adel
Hobbyist - Egypt

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October 12, 2011

Hi, Hosam.

Check the conductivity of the chrome grills on 100 cars and you'll find that most chrome plated plastic is conductive :-)

But what you are calling "chrome plated plastic" is probably not chrome plated plastic; rather, it's either vacuum metallized plastic or chrome-look paint. I strongly doubt that anyone will be able to nickel plate it. But good luck.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

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October 12, 2011

Hi Ted,
Vacuum metallized plastics would also be conductive unless they are coated again with non conductive materials for protection etc.

H.R. Prabhakara - Consultant
Bangalore Plasmatek - Bangalore Karnataka India

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Thanks Ted and Prabhakara,

I found that most of the chrome plated plastic parts are coated with lacquer and that's why it was not conductive. The protection layer is sometimes easily removed with acetone and other times it is a little hard to remove so I use paint and lacquer remover spray.

Now I made a mistake in my question when I said I want to nickel plate the chrome. What I meant is that I want to remove remove the chrome to gold plate on the nickel layer under it. However, every time I try to do that the whole layer comes off in the stripping process as if there is no nickel underneath the chrome and I just end up having a normal plastic part. I'm doing the stripping with brush. If there is any advice please let me know.

To summarize what I want to do in one sentence. I want to gold plate the chrome plated plastic.

Your help is highly appreciated

P.S: I only know brush plating at the moment.

Hosam Adel
- Cairo, Egypt
November 16, 2011

Hi, Hosam.

If you are dealing with real chrome plated plastic it will not have a topcoat, it will be conductive, the chrome will be very easily removeable with hydrochloric acid, after which you will be able to easily brush plate it with gold. Of all of the world's plating jobs, perhaps the only easy one is this: one of our advertisers used to have a video with a model wearing googles, gloves and a bikini or some such successfully tackling this job :-)

I very strongly suspect that some of the "chrome plated plastic" which you are working with is not chrome plated plastic at all, but is "chrome-look paint" or is plastic that has been vacuum metallized with aluminum. It may look like chrome plated plastic to you, but it isn't, and there is no way for you to "strip the chrome and leave the nickel" because there is no chrome and there is no nickel :-(

As a general rule, if it is an OEM-supplied exterior component it will be real chrome plated plastic. If it is an interior component it will not be real chrome. If it is an aftermarket component for exterior use, it will depend on the reputability of the supplier.

Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
November 16, 2011