Chrome plating or polishing, whats the best?

Around these parts a polished stator cover will run you 200$. I just tried to bid on one on ebay yesterday and it was nice and went for 130$

Saturday I used a 6" Sisal wheel with emory, and then an 8" spiral sewn cotton wheel with the red, and then an 8" spiral sewn cotton wheel with the white polishing compound, on my 7" portable grinder clamped in a vise, and polished the left and right engine covers and the cam cover on a 750 twin in a couple of hours. I figure another hour to do the wheels (when I get a rountuit), so I think $150 to polish all engine covers and both wheels sounds reasonable. If they have to be sanded the time involved (and the price) would increase significantly though.

Polishing costs as much as chrome does around the Houston area. I spent thousands on the chrome work on mine because it is a bike that sleeps inside and is not really ridden. Show plating is much more expensive but is better for longevity. Polishing is constant maintenance and anything you coat it with seems to turn yellow. If I ever do another KZ to be a rider I am gonna do the candy powdercoat on the covers. There is also a silver that looks like polished aluminum. I wish I would have done this and saved all that chroming money to put toward another bike. I went overboard doing every bolt,nut,washer,etc.:pinch:

KawasakiJockey wrote:

Polishing costs as much as chrome does around the Houston area. I spent thousands on the chrome work on mine because it is a bike that sleeps inside and is not really ridden. Show plating is much more expensive but is better for longevity. Polishing is constant maintenance and anything you coat it with seems to turn yellow. If I ever do another KZ to be a rider I am gonna do the candy powdercoat on the covers. There is also a silver that looks like polished aluminum. I wish I would have done this and saved all that chroming money to put toward another bike. I went overboard doing every bolt,nut,washer,etc.:pinch:

wait till you see the plating and polishing this time around!:evil:

That is one thing I like about the Spectre I just bought...NO CHROME! While you guys are spending your time keeping your bikes shiney, I'll be out riding mine. I won't be stuck up though. I'll be sure and honk and wave as I pass by on my Anti-shine bike.

you sound like solomrus,paints all his chrome stuff black!:S

A friend of mine who chromed lots of parts on his turbo told me the only way to make chrome last was to copper plate the item first, then polish it, then nickel plate it, then polish again, then chrome plate. Stupidly expensive but extremely durable and doesn't flake off apparently.

Awhile back I almost bought a plateing system off ebay. I did a little research and found out that not only does EPA concider chrome a toxic substance it has severe fines for not disposing of it properly. This totally scared me off. I also found out that what triple plateing means is presicely what you mentioned, Lorcan. Chrome won't plate properly directly to aluminum. In order to get a good chrome platting on aluminum you first need to plate it w/copper, then you plate it w/nickel, then the chrome will stick to the nickel. So, you should ONLY get triple plated chrome on aluminum, otherwise it simply will not stick.
Ron

thats triple plating,thats the good stuff!you can make the single step stuff last ,the biggest thing is to keep it clean and waxed really good.

Yup:P

Wow, I forgot about this thread. I got out my receipts tonight, and I was mistaken. It cost me $150.00 for all my covers to be polished. I think I did my fork legs at a different time. They might have been $40.00 or something like that. I just picked up my carb tops, float bowls (8 all together) and 2 fork caps and the guy charged me $40.00. He's the same polisher who Bourget uses located in the Deer Valley industrial area.
This guy does an incredible job. When he finishes the parts look like mirrors. They are a pain in the arse to keep looking great though. I will post pics of the carb parts when I finish putting my carbs back together this weekend.

Post edited by: austin3119, at: 2006/10/13 02:03

Well what I do is just use turtle wax. Works for me and I tell you, I am beginning to use my clutch cover as a mirror