De-nickeling a frame

Do you just take it to a chrome shop and have them take it off? I don’t think you can powdercoat over the nickel. Thoughts?

Hi Swooshdave

I have a few damaged/ corroded nickelled frames that could not have been restored without loads of highly skilled work. My Rickman Commando frame (previously for a Daytona)had its bottom rails cut through & spacers inserted & splatter welded to mount a A65 BSA engine. The exhaust hangers were also cut off. Rickman plated the bottom tubes. I had the frame blasted to remove the rust & done as a key to hold paint. Ended up having it powdercoated to cover the imperfections. Worked well.
Nice job.
Chris

You probably can powedercoat over nickel but I'm not sure if it will adhere in the long term. I would be more inclined to use a heavy duty, etching primer and a good paint.

Removing the nickel is the reverse of plating. A reputable metal plating shop should be able to do it.

Before you start, no need to tell me how stupid this is grown men are known to do stupid things.

I've acid etched chrome and power coated and it worked well. I've also acid de-rusted frames and painted. Tarp in the yard, frame on it, 20% muriatic acid in a spray bottle (buy it at the hardware store for cleaning concrete/bricks). Hose it off after a few minutes (your grass will appreciate you sprinkling baking soda over it before rinsing). You don't want to breath it and wash it off immediately if it gets on your skin. Any bare metal will flash rust - a few strokes with sandpaper and that's gone.

I've also blasted chrome with glass abrasive (not beads) or garnet and then powder coated - that also works, but I think the acid is better since any pinholes probably have rust in them. For things that will fit in my blast cabinet, acid first, blast second.

Yes, what they sell as 20% muriatic acid is really hydrochloric acid cut to 20% with water.

Edited with the correct acid - sorry for the error.

Nickel plating is one of the worst for hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steel. If your frame is chrome-moly, you might get cracking. Normal method of removal is probably reverse plating. So the frame would be the anode - not a hydrogen-rich locality in a plating bath.

acotrel said:

Nickel plating is one of the worst for hydrogen embrittlement of high strength steel. If your frame is chrome-moly, you might get cracking. Normal method of removal is probably reverse plating. So the frame would be the anode - not a hydrogen-rich locality in a plating bath.

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It’s a stock Commando frame.

marshg246 said:

Before you start, no need to tell me how stupid this is grown men are known to do stupid things.

I've acid etched chrome and power coated and it worked well. I've also acid de-rusted frames and painted. Tarp in the yard, frame on it, 20% mercuric acid in a spray bottle (buy it at the hardware store for cleaning concrete/bricks). Hose it off after a few minutes (your grass will appreciate you sprinkling baking soda over it before rinsing). You don't want to breath it and wash it off immediately if it gets on your skin. Any bare metal will flash rust - a few strokes with sandpaper and that's gone.

I've also blasted chrome with glass abrasive (not beads) or garnet and then powder coated - that also works, but I think the acid is better since any pinholes probably have rust in them. For things that will fit in my blast cabinet, acid first, blast second.

Yes, what they sell as 20% mercuric acid is really hydrochloric acid cut to 20% with water.

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The great thing about asking a question here is you usually get a lot of information on how not to do it.

marshg246 said:

what they sell as 20% mercuric acid is really hydrochloric acid cut to 20% with water.

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I believe you mean muriatic acid, not mercuric. Mercuric acid is mercury dissolved in a strong acid like sulfuric or nitric. It is banned in the US for most uses.

Ron L said:

I believe you mean muriatic acid, not mercuric. Mercuric acid is mercury dissolved in a strong acid like sulfuric or nitric. It is banned in the US for most uses.

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Yes, miss-spelled, right-clicked, chose the wrong one, thank you.

swooshdave said:

The great thing about asking a question here is you usually get a lot of information on how not to do it.

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Ya, but then it works very well so....

The last one I did, I had the local plating shop remove the nickel. I'm not sure how they did it, but they didn't appear to have any problems, and it came out well. I did some repairs to it (Hindall oil-in-frame chassis that had cracked in several places), and then took it back to them for new plating.

Ken

I’ve used muriatic acid to remove plating on other, non motorcycle, projects. I also used it to get rid of rust in my XS650 tank before redkoting. Chemical goggles and a respirator are a must. Make sure you have sodium bicarbonate handy. I have a 5 gallon bucket of it that I purchased for my soda blaster at the local feed store.

Not a big fan of acid unless it’s windowpane.

I’ll gladly pay someone to remove the nickel if this thing comes in my possession.

Effective and better than acid is cyanide strip. It does not touch ferrous metals, yet does eat nickle and chrome (and brass and brazing). Where I used to work we had a chem/plating lab and they would routinely strip my chromed parts. Granted acid is common enough but in one case , it clean ate the threads off the triple tree stem when a rookie put it in acid and the autopsy by the shop leader told the rookie he should not put a sulfur containing steel in HCL. From then on my stripping was only done in cyanide.

My dunstall frame was to big for the in house chem lab tanks so...
When I brought my 68 Dunstall frame to a commercial plating shop for strip and re plating, I specified cyanide strip an was willing to pay more, the knuckle dragging harley type screwed me and plated it without a proper prep I asked for. Lie-cheat-steal he went out of business.
I later learned from a professional car restorer, they would inspect between every step of the process'.

Chrome commando brake rotors stripped with acid WILL eventually eat the steel too.

Windowpane. Owsley engineering.

dynodave said:

Chrome commando brake rotors stripped with acid WILL eventually eat the steel too.

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I send my rotors here: https://truedisk.net/ Inexpensive, quick turnaround, and they work better than new. They are no longer chrome and can rust, but I've been very happy with them.

Just asking: Rickman frames brazed and nickeled, can you strip them safely with the brazed joints?