battery trays and fork trees

Two life changing questions..
1. is it possible to remove the battery tray without completely dismantling the rear isolastic, with the bike sitting on its on weight on the wheels?

2. Has anyone chromed the fork yolks/trees? I would like to do this but I dont know what the finished product would look like because of the rough cast finish.

cheers

re #2: Generally you don't chrome anything without polishing the base metal it first. Good chrome plating is then 3 steps of plating. First with copper, which is polished before then nickel plating, which is polished before then plating with chrome. Each polishing and plating step fills microscopic surface defects to where you get the classic mirror-like finish we all associate with chrome plating.

Straight chrome plating, such as used in industrial hard plating is barely silver, and not at all attractive.

Ref #1 - I think you should be able to remove the battery tray with the isos in place, bike on it wheels. The lower two mounts for the tray on my 71 were slotted and they slide onto the isolastic stud. So I had to have the stud and rear isolastic mount in place to put the tray in. So you should just have to loosen the two nuts and slide the tray out - after disconnecting everything else.
HTHs
Matt :lol:

BrianG said:

re #2: Generally you don't chrome anything without polishing the base metal it first. Good chrome plating is then 3 steps of plating. First with copper, which is polished before then nickel plating, which is polished before then plating with chrome. Each polishing and plating step fills microscopic surface defects to where you get the classic mirror-like finish we all associate with chrome plating.

Straight chrome plating, such as used in industrial hard plating is barely silver, and not at all attractive.

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Anything can be done. You just have to ask yourself if it's worth it.

Thanks guys, both questions answered in a day.

Wilco,
Had my triples re-chromed (PO originally did it)- they look great!

I chromed the top triple of my MKIII. It looks excellent to my eye.

Were the triples sanding and polished smooth before chroming or just cleaned up and chromed?

I also had my last Commando triples chromed. They usually polish them smooth first. I remember it was quite annoying trying to get the legs in because they had built up the thickness so much.

I had my MKIII trees chromed and they look good. Chrome shop wasn't too thorough and I'd never use them again as they had to replate but didn't strip their first botched layer off. If you have access to a top shelf chrome plating shop than you're golden. They should smooth and polish for you. Tape off what you don't want chromed and if the guys that work there have half a brain they will do the job well. The chrome plater I used should be shot, along with the powder coating guy I used as well.

Cookie said:

I also had my last Commando triples chromed. They usually polish them smooth first. I remember it was quite annoying trying to get the legs in because they had built up the thickness so much.

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That happened to me but I used a dremel with a sanding drum and made things work in about 5 minutes. I think these shops just hire people that don't care or take pride in their work. It's hard to find businesses that think quality first these days.

I was doing a little research into chrome platers.
Came across Brown's. They look pretty good.
Anyone heard or used them?

http://brownsplating.com/index.php

Kev_England said:

I was doing a little research into chrome platers.
Came across Brown's. They look pretty good.
Anyone heard or used them?

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Brown's in Paducah was THE place to get bike parts chromed in the '70's. Local guys would drive their parts 5 hours there to hand over their custom crafted parts and drive another 5 hours to pick them up. Quality was top notch.

Then business got so good that they would no longer accept parts from individuals. They worked with dealers and builders and if you wanted a Brown's plating job you had to give your parts to a dealer who would eventually ship them down to Paducah and hopefully you would get back your parts in 6-7 weeks. The dealers generally viewed handling someone else's parts as a PITA and often parts were lost or instructions on repairs before plating were lost. Soon, many looked elsewhere where they could be certain that pitted Vincent kickstart lever would be done properly and not lost in transit.

Perhaps it is a sign of the economy that Brown's is once again in the retail plating business. I discovered their change of heart a few months ago, and find the news encouraging to vintage car and bike restorers as if they still do the quality work they were famous for 30 years ago, that's great news.

Thanks for the info.

Makes sense now, since while reading their website, I was confused by the top notch marketing and large-scale operation - but they seemed to be pushing the "small mom and pop shop old-time quality" theme.
I just didnt see how the 2 could relate.

Guess its worth sending a few small not-so-important pieces to get an idea what they can do.
Cheers.

Wilco said:

Two life changing questions..

2. Has anyone chromed the fork yolks/trees? I would like to do this but I dont know what the finished product would look like because of the rough cast finish.

cheers

Click to expand...

Go here, vickermanschrome.com, and read his writup and see the before and after pics. Answers many questions.

seaguy said:

Wilco said:

Two life changing questions..

2. Has anyone chromed the fork yolks/trees? I would like to do this but I dont know what the finished product would look like because of the rough cast finish.

cheers

Click to expand...

Go here, vickermanschrome.com, and read his writup and see the before and after pics. Answers many questions.

Click to expand...

thanks for that. informative site.