Re Chroming

[Red Horse]

Anyone have any experience with getting their old B Model parts rechromed? Costs? Things to look for in a good shop? I'm talking about the hood lettering, the dogs on the hood panels as well as the "mack" nose piece including the Dog. My stuff has quite a bit of pitting.

[blueknight0517@yahoo.com]

Anyone have any experience with getting their old B Model parts rechromed? Costs? Things to look for in a good shop? I'm talking about the hood lettering, the dogs on the hood panels as well as the "mack" nose piece including the Dog. My stuff has quite a bit of pitting.

Red Horse,

To have those parts rechromed is expensive. I had the cab lights on my Mack rechromed and paid $100 a light. Chrome is not cheap. If you do have a shop do the job make sure the price includes filling the pit holes. The entire piece is cleaned and each hole has to be soldered. Once that is done the piece is polished and then dipped for chrome. Once the chrome is done the part has to be hand polished to give it that bright "chromed" look.

The process is very labor intentsive and the chemicals are very unfriendly to the enviroment. This all equates to a very high price.

I found a NOS dog on Ebay and bought it for under thirty dollars.

Good luck

Jim

[other dog]

That's probably all true today about the chemicals and environment and expense,but 30 years ago when H.H.Moore put a new bumper on a truck he would buy a plain bumper,just primered,and take it to a place in Richmond and have it chromed-I took some down there myself,to a place on Hull Street. He said it was cheaper to do that than buy a chrome bumper in the first place.

I painted the cab marker lights on the mixer with chrome bumper paint,pretty expensive for a spray can but it looked pretty good...of course it's a mixer,not exactly a show truck.

[rw613]

there is a place in INDIANA called j&p chrome look them up on the web they do a good job the dog is going to be very expensive it was going to cost me more for the dog than my other parts alltogether you can send them your parts and thell give you a estamate

[engine2quarters]

Make sure the rechromer is trust worthy, has many current references. Keep an itemized list of each item sent. Get an itemized list from the rechromer, not a 'batch' price.

A local antique fire truck owner decided to get some stuff rechromed last year. Most of it was that dark/light brass which couldn't be shined up. Only options were either paint it or chrome it. Most of the stuff was in pairs, ie. pair of headlight bezels, pair of hood 'half dogs', etc. More than half of his stuff disappeared. It's strange that he did get back one headlight bezel and one hood 'half dog', though.

[Red Horse]

Guys, Thank you all for your responses. I tracked down a shop in my area and am going to bring all my stuff down to him next week. He says his minimum is $125. I gather that refers to what can fit in the basket or tank or whatever. I will keep you posted as I would think this is a commeon issue today.

[Red Horse]

Guys, Thank you all for your responses. I tracked down a shop in my area and am going to bring all my stuff down to him next week. He says his minimum is $125. I gather that refers to what can fit in the basket or tank or whatever. I will keep you posted as I would think this is a commeon issue today.

Guys, Well I have a hard number. $775 bucks will get me 8 pieces as follows:

Nosing that "Dog is attached to.

"Mack" header that is under the nosing on the rad shell

Bull dog

Right and left side hood dogs

one "Thermodyne"

one "diesel"

one "B-61"

Any opinions?

PS- I also sent him my rad shell just for kicks- a grand! I think it will look nice in Black with redshutters and chrome hood latches!

[rw613]

THE LAST STUFF I SENT THE HOOD DOG WAS MORE THAN THE REST OF IT SO I JUST PUT THE NEW STYLE ON IT SAVED A LOT OF MONEY

[vanscottbuilders]

Red Horse,

Please do keep us posted, and maybe tell us about the process and the results with your chrome shop.

Would you mind asking if he wants more work? And where is the shop located?

I have essentially the same parts ready now for a chrome shop.

Thanks,

Paul Van Scott

[Red Horse]

Red Horse,

Please do keep us posted, and maybe tell us about the process and the results with your chrome shop.

Would you mind asking if he wants more work? And where is the shop located?

I have essentially the same parts ready now for a chrome shop.

Thanks,

Paul Van Scott

Paul,

The guy is actually a broker of sorts. He runs a speed shop and provides rechroming as one of his sidelines. the guy he uses is in rhode Island. This guy was referred to me by a guy who has an established powder coating business- not someone who would pass out endorsements casually. I haven't given him the green light but I probably will. Am I paying a bit of a "handling" charge? Probably. but I did say to the guy.."well why don't I just find a plater and cut you out as the middleman?" His answer was that he had purchasing power and a longstanding relationship with this guy. I kind of think the plater would rather not deal with a lot of people coming into his business with small orders. My guy on the other hand collects orders and brings them down to the guy so the plater deals with one guy vs the individual accounts. I know as a matter of fact with my parts he also was bringing down to the guy a set of front leaf springs for a "bucket T", as well as some assorted bumpers and grill parts.

I will keep you posted.

[other dog]

Guys, Well I have a hard number. $775 bucks will get me 8 pieces as follows:

Nosing that "Dog is attached to.

"Mack" header that is under the nosing on the rad shell

Bull dog

Right and left side hood dogs

one "Thermodyne"

one "diesel"

one "B-61"

Any opinions?

PS- I also sent him my rad shell just for kicks- a grand! I think it will look nice in Black with redshutters and chrome hood latches!

WOW! I think it will too...I had no idea chroming was that expensive, but i've never had anything chromed before.

[Rob]

I spent over $4000.00 getting parts chromed for my A, and B models including three front "Mack" emblems for the grille shells, four left, and four right 1/2 dogs for the hood sides, two glove box, and two instrument panels, two ash receiver shells, and two defroster vents, four Thermodyne, six Diesel, six B-61, two dog stands for the grille shell, two dogs chromed, one 14k gold plated, (this one is my desk ornament). I also had a grille shell plated but it was destroyed in return transit by the freight company. Also had four outer door handles plated, four inner door handles, four window cranks, the expansion bezels for the aforementioned handles, and four headlamp bezels for the B models. Almost forgot, two spotlights branded "Mack" and manufactured by "Unity". There are also numerous small parts that I don't remember until getting back into the boxes.

Most of the stuff I sent in was NOS that I've had for 30+ years from when my grandpa retired and in house trucking was phased out. I took all the ornamentation and such they had on the shelves. Never in my wildest dreams did I think some of this stuff could be looked at as "valuable".

Rob

[HeyCharger]

This is what (little) I understand about chrome plating;

Chrome Process

1. Removal of Existing Plate

The first step in the restoration of chrome parts is the removal of all existing plating. To ensure a quality job the part must be brought down to its base metal. This is done by a chemical (acid) that removes the existing chrome and nickel plating.

2. Part Cleaning

After the plating has been removed, the parts are sand blasted clean, and/or chemically cleaned to remove rust. This process helps identify the flaws (pitting, scratches, rot) in the base metal that must be addressed.

3. Repair

For those parts that are deeply pitted or rotted, the chrome shop will either cut out and prefabricate the rotted area or will solder the flawed areas. Chrome shops have developed the skills and techniques required to address both the variety of metal and metal condition faced in restoring old metal parts.

4. Polishing

Using a series of abrasives the parts are polished to a near mirror like finish. Remember that your chrome shop has devised a number to techniques and tools that polish the metal without damaging the fine detail . This is especially necessary in the handling of the more delicate pot metal castings used in many older cars.

5. Copper Plating

After polishing the base metal the parts are copper plated. The copper plate both protects the metal and allows the chrome shop workers to buff the parts to a near flawless condition.

6. Buffing

The parts are removed from the copper solutions, rinsed and buffed. In the buffing process soft cloth wheels are used to remove small surface imperfections and to bring the parts to a mirror shine.

7. Nickel Plating

The parts are cleaned and immersed in a nickel plating tank. To insure a quality product platers continue to monitor the condition of the plating solutions. After approximately one hour the parts are removed with a brilliant nickel plate.

8. Chrome Plating

The final step of chrome plating gives protection and luster to your parts. It is the last step in the Triple Chrome Plating Process (1)Copper (2)Nickel (3)Chrome).

I believe that very few shops carry out step 5 Copper plating, for various environmental reasons. However, according to all the old timers, this is a very important step.

Try to find out if they are going to do the full Triple Chrome Plating Process.

Regards, Rod.

[Red Horse]

Guys, Well I did get my parts back. And I think the stuff looks good. One of the side dogs lost a bit of material on the edge and the "Mack" side scripts have a few pits. But the "Mack" that goes above the radiator shell and the dog bas and "the Dog" Look great. I will post some pictures when I get a minute- actually I took a before photo so I will stage the after the same way.

Not sure Rod what the procedure was but all in all I'm satisfied. I alkso priced out the same items on Watts Mack and I saved about 225 plus shipping. I have no clue as to the quailty of the items Watts has as I assume its all reproduction but in addition to saving a few bucks I do know what roads my dog went down 40 plus years ago!