Chrome plating or polishing, whats the best?

I am about to take the plunge and blow some cheese on some chrome and was wondering what is better. Should i go with buying polished parts or just have my parts chrome plated? I have a guy that will chrome plate at a pretty good price but was also looking at some already done polished parts, are there any pros and cons with chrome and polished parts?

Alot of this is personal preference. IMHO polished parts are the way to go with a vintage bike. If I were in your shoes I would take some of your "cheeze" and go buy some wet-dry sand paper, a bunch of beer, and a bench grinder set-up with a buffing wheel and a stick of white SCR buffing compound, a new dyno cover gasket, and a new clutch cover gasket. Then set about doing it yourself. Done properly you can remove the 30 years of "patina" that has built up on your engine covers and have them shining better than new.

The disadvantage to chrome is after awhile it has a tendancy to flake off and peel. Once you have polished off the 30 years worth of tarnish maintaining it is no biggie. My suggestion would be to have a go at a small part your point cover would be good one to try your hand at polishing. I think after you see how good it can look you will be looking to spend your "cheeze" on other things. Besides you will have the satisfaction of having done it yourself.

it all depends on how much work you want to do.the more time you spend getting your parts ready,the better they will look and youll save yourself a big chunk by doing as much of the grunt work as you can.i like to blocksand everything nice and flat and smooth out the welds as much as possible .i like polished aluminum but its a pain to keep clean thats one advantage of chrome you can just wax chrome really good and just wipe it off you cant tell in this picture but every weld on this bike was ground smooth and molded with more welding.there are also differant grades of plating if you want really good plating look for a shop that does triple plating.

what would be a good price for say, a clutch cover ?

As I got older I found I like paint much better. Easier to take care of. Now move up to the 21st century...... You can now have the best of BOTH worlds. The ease of paint and the shine of chrome or polished pieces. After you chrome or polish your stuff simply have those pieces CLEAR Powder coated.

I can have a clutch cover triple plated if you have the cover for 70$ plus whatever shipping is.

kzmarvo wrote:

I can have a clutch cover triple plated if you have the cover for 70$ plus whatever shipping is.

But you'll have to pop the oil window out and re-install after.

The PO of my LTD had every case cover and the cam cover and the carb caps chromed. Thet're all peeling now and I am systematically replacing them with polished parts.

The guy that might plate for me says he has lifetime warranty on his stuff. Been in business 12 years and triple plates.

sounds good to me!

When I got all the covers polished on my bike including the lower forks (all of it looks amazing by the way) I think I paid $125.00 . Can't beat that.

that must have been a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooong time ago cuz the prices that i have gotten are pretty high.:blink:

Post edited by: steell, at: 2006/08/26 06:42

No, actually about a year ago. They still look good too. I will check receipts but to cover myself I will say $175 tops for all the covers and fork lowers. I will pull receipts and get back to you.

Post edited by: austin3119, at: 2006/08/26 01:21