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  for Metal Finishing since 1989
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Repair of metal to be chromed

2000

Hi guys I stumbled across this site in the hope I could find a solution to my problem.

When restoring an old motorcycle I needed to find a way to fix the rust marks in a fuel tank that I wanted to chrome plated.

A friend said that there was a solder type metal that I could put on with a soldering iron and it could be dressed back to a polished state and chromed over.

Any help will be appreciated.

Carl Askew
Classic Japanese Motorcycle Spares - Sydney Australia

Although you are talking about decorative chrome plating, a great article on this subject is "Defects in Hard Chromium Deposits: Detection, Prevention and Repair" by Chessin, Knill, and Seyb and published in Plating & Surface Finishing, March 1983. Copies are presumably available from A.E.S.F. if your library can't get them for you.

I don't know of anything you put on with a soldering iron, but I think the standard method the plating shop would employ would be to cyanide copper plate, then acid copper plate and mush buff to fill any rust pits, before nickel-chrome plating.

I doubt that any good would come out of contaminating the steel surface with some other metal before sending it to the plating shop.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2000