Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi folks,I have some bits & pieces which I would like re-chromed things like boot hinges etc,can anyone advise me of a good plater to send them to.I live in West Wales & there isnt a plater within 100 miles of me,I realise you cant state names on this forum but if you could pm me I would appreciate it.
Thanks in advance

seriesmm_1 wrote: I realise you cant state names on this forum

There's no problem with people providing reccomendations here.

I was recommended a chromer by a guy who owns a really really nice SS jag and I had them chrome the grill on my MM which was worn down to the brass and dinged in a couple of places. It came back in pristine condition and 4 years later on its still as good. I also got a couple of art deco wall lights chromed by them that must have been lying in a shed or garage for years and again great job. Its an old fashioned family firm who dont advertise and dont use computers. Im happy to recommend them.

Prestige Electro Plating
Unit 6, Cliff Street Ind Estate
Mexborough
S. Yorks
s64 9HU
01709577004

Thanks for that timely post David and seriesmm- I too have a few items to rechrome and was going to ask the same question I'm not too far from Mexborough so think I might give them a try.

Thanks David for the info,much appreciated

Hello Seriesmm1,

if your existing hinges are pitted or blistering I don't know if you can successfully have them replated? If the plating is merely worn then that should be OK. It's because of the base metal (Muzak, I think the trade name is?).

Alec

Hi Alec,agree with you & what I shall do is test the water first & see what they say & how they will overcome the pitting,by the way the trade name is Mazac
Regards

Out of interest I found the following info on line.

Zamak also named Zamac is a trademarked family of alloys with a base metal of zinc and alloying elements of aluminium, magnesium, and copper. It was developed by the New Jersey Zinc Company in the late 1920's.

The name Zamak is an acronym of the German names for the metals of which the alloys are composed: Zink (zinc), Aluminium, Magnesium and Kupfer (copper).

A large problem with early zinc die casting materials was 'zinc pest', owing to impurities in the alloys. Zamak avoided this by the use of 99.99% pure zinc metal, produced by New Jersey Zinc's use of a refluxer as part of the smelting process. (no I don't know what that is)

In the early 1930's a license was granted to make the New Jersey zamak alloy in England. The high-purity refluxer zinc was not available here so the right to manufacture the alloy was acquired using a locally available electrolytically refined zinc of 99.95% purity. This was given the name Mazak to distinguish it from the superior material zamak.

The 'zinc pest' is the impurity content contained within the metal that results in the pot marks in the chrome door handles, boot hinges etc., of our beloved cars.

Now if someone could recast these parts in a decent material...........

Regards Ian

Hi all
Just some expansion about the chemistry of the zinc corrosion under chrome plating.
Chrome plating is nowadays a three layer "system". First a layer of relatively soft and malleable nickel for corrosion resistance, then a thinner layer of a 'bright' nickel which is really there as a suitable undercoat for a very thin layer of chromium. The chromium is always very finely cracked (microcracked) due to high internal stressing. The chromium is there for its decorative, bright, shiny appearance. It contributes very little to the corrosion properties, which all come from the first nickel underlayer. Polishing will be done on the casting, and then no further manual polishing.
In use, after some years, small pits form in the coating, promoted via road salt etc and eventually these go right through the nickel. By electolytic action the zinc now starts to corrode preferentially and a deep pit forms under the hole in the nickel. the mound of 'muck' around the hole is caused by the the corrosion products.
So, what can be done when the part is in this state? One trick is to strip the old coating (tricky in itself) apply a thick layer of copper and then to manually polish this layer. The hot copper can be 'smeared' over the holes during this operation, filling or sealing them. Polishing is very expensive, requiring lengthy skilled labour. Nickel/chrome is then plated as before. All-in-all expensive, if anyone will be prepared to do it for you.
A further option is to ignore the holes and plate direct, which will not look very pretty.
The only other option is new components!! By repute and my own experience London Chroming in the Old Kent Road will make probably one of the best jobs around, but it will 'cost'.
Really and honestly, little can be done with corroded parts
I hope this helps your understanding.
Colin

I may be wrong but are just about all chrome parts for a Minor not available new from specialist Morris Minor outlets?

I bought new from one guy in particular and even with the outragious postage prices from the UK to Australia it worked out much cheaper than rechroming, and I had a much more consistant finish to all pieces, as with old pieces you may lose definition of some lines due to polishing to remove those afformentioned "pits".

Well, quality vaires on new chrome as I'm sure you'll see if you do a search on old postings. Also some Series MM stuff isn't really catered for, for example the chrome top rail above the grill, whichis a mazac casting. Later ones and repros are a pressing and have a rounded top edge so look different (if you're slightly pedantic.).
Lowlight bumper blades are unavailable at the moment (though I understand this may or may aready have changed).
And at least if you have your own stuff replated, its the original components for the car and you'll know the quality and source of the plating.

DAVIDMCCULLOUGH wrote:I was recommended a chromer by a guy who owns a really really nice SS jag and I had them chrome the grill on my MM which was worn down to the brass and dinged in a couple of places. It came back in pristine condition and 4 years later on its still as good. I also got a couple of art deco wall lights chromed by them that must have been lying in a shed or garage for years and again great job. Its an old fashioned family firm who dont advertise and dont use computers. Im happy to recommend them.

Prestige Electro Plating
Unit 6, Cliff Street Ind Estate
Mexborough
S. Yorks
s64 9HU
01709577004

I too have used Prestige Plating in the past - used to live not too far from them, and have been quite satisfied.
Derby Platers have a very good reputaion in the od car world, but never used them personally.

For information - I have spoken today with the guys at Prestige and there is currently a 4 month waiting period for jobs to be completed. There are, apparently, a lot of classic cars that need re-chroming along with all the other industrial jobs they do!!

To re-chrome a front bumper blade would be £75 + VAT (£90) and a rear bumper blade would be £70 + VAT (£84). I do have a pair of just about useable blades which I will put on my car to get in back on the road and will let Prestige have my originals for re-plating later in the Summer(?). Their prices are very near to the buy new from some traders but I am going to 'gamble' on the quality of the original blades as opposed to the newly manufactured ones.

I will post up some before and after photo's so you can judge what sort of a job they do. Sound like a really nice company though - had a good long chat with them and they do get a bit frustrated that folks only send their brightwork to them at the end of their restoration rather than at the beginning. A message there for anyone thinking about having re-chroming done! Watch this space

Hello Brucek,

I know I was disappointed in a pair of new reproduction traveller blades I fitted some time ago, rust appeared quite quickly (a couple of years), which I did not expect to happen. I concluded they didn't get a thorough plating as some specialists still do.

Alec

Bruce, they quoted me 15 weeks for have some smaller items done once and they were back in about 5 weeks, they probably give you a worst case length of time.

Yes I thought that too David. To be fair the person I spoke to was at pains to point out that they have started by giving people the length of time it could take and I guess, to a certain extent, it will also depend upon the condition of the items to be plated at the start of the process. I'm sure they would be quicker than their quoted time. Given the experiences that some have had with 'new chrome' I'm hoping that having the old ones done will prove to be a better longer term bet - esp if done by a company who knows what they are doing and have been used by some of the top marque restorers. I'll let you know

Hi Bruce,
I also spoke to them after I had been told about them as a reliable platers & found they were very helpfull & can confirm on the 16 week lead time which is fine for me as I'm just starting a restoration.I will be sending overriders hockey sticks etc & will keep people informed of the outcome which I hope will be successfull.

I seem to remember that the chromer waits until he has a batch of pieces to do, to make it worth his while to fire up the machinery involved.
The delay I think is in waiting to see how many parts that need chroming can be gathered and processed in one hit,this makes the process economical and hopefully profitable for him and cheaper for us, utilising chemicals and energy en masse.