Good electroplaters

Do any of you gentlemen know of a good plating company who charge realistic rates? I've just received a quote for replating a petrol tank, & needed a sit down to recover from the shock. The tank in question is in reasonable condition, but does need a heavy coat of copper to fill in light corrosion & scratches before it is finish plated. The price........£595 plus vat, so £714.
If prices carry on increasing at this rate, I'm going to quit building bikes & find a cheaper hobby.

Matchless said:

Do any of you gentlemen know of a good plating company who charge realistic rates? I've just received a quote for replating a petrol tank, & needed a sit down to recover from the shock. The tank in question is in reasonable condition, but does need a heavy coat of copper to fill in light corrosion & scratches before it is finish plated. The price........£595 plus vat, so £714.
If prices carry on increasing at this rate, I'm going to quit building bikes & find a cheaper hobby.

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Holt would make you an alloy tank at that sort or price!

The platers/replaters I hear people recommend are the ones who do Wasp frames in nickel and historically did Rickman frames and have replated many of them. Hampshire way, but sorry, I never remember their name!

I could ask Kevin Downer who I know uses them. My guess is that due to increased energy costs and environmental stuff, none of them is cheap!

I had a 19" front wheel rim re-plated at Chromefix in Birmingham. They did a nice job, but I have no idea how their prices compare with other plating shops.

Have you inquired with Philpott?

- Knut

I had an excellent result with Derby Plating, and it came as a recommendation with the warning that it wont be cheap...


A Lucas (green, ex WD) Lucas headlamp shell was £120 with the VAT, to strip, prep, and return to me. A fantastic job with nice thick layer. But, yes, spendy...

daveforty said:

I had a 19" front wheel rim re-plated at Chromefix in Birmingham. They did a nice job, but I have no idea how their prices compare with other plating shops.

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Dare I ask what the cost was?
I have quite a collection of Dunlop WM2 rims which are just too grotty to use, but not beyond restoration - depending on the price.

B+Bogus said:

Dare I ask what the cost was?
I have quite a collection of Dunlop WM2 rims which are just too grotty to use, but not beyond restoration - depending on the price.

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£180, but that was a couple of years ago.

Discussion on this forum;

Thanks for the replies. Still chewing it over.

Environmental laws make electroplating expensive. I used to control a very large electroplating facility, which was on a bank of a river. We had electronically controlled recirculating rinses on all of the plating lines. Our processes were all controlled to British defence specifications. Currently, the only plating shop that I know of in south-east Australia, is in Albury alongside the Murray River. Most have gone. In Melbourne, intractable waste used to end-up in a clay-bottomed hole at Tullamarine. A spent plating bath could be a major problem. We used to plate all the metal out of them, which also destroyed the cyanide in some types of baths. My predecessor in that job was very proud, when the weeds grew back in the adjoining river. All plating waste used to run straight into the river and Port Phillip Bay.

Thailand .
Environmental laws are slack or ignored for plating .