Plating ?

Yeah, I've had stuff done by a plater but "they" mostly do industrial plating. He told me they are not in the restoration business. Some of my parts from him looked ok but some I had to have him redo. I also don't like the chance of loosing something. It is a great convenience to do a part when you need it. It IS very time consuming though & I'm not doing 6 bikes at a time either. I really don't like the idea of shipping my parts either. The place I used was 25 miles from home so I could just drive there. I am just dabbling at it & have not perfected it yet. I also haven't bought any chemicals especially made for plating or tinting. I'm sure if I did they would be "brighter".

I had a bad experience with a well known plating company in Van Nuys Ca. earlier this year with a bunch of fasteners, spokes and misc parts. The so called zinc had blisters on many of the parts and just didn't look right on others. They ran some of the order through again and some of it still turned out unsatisfactory. Then come to find out they used nickel when I requested zinc.

25 years ago I had a bunch of stuff zinc plated and it came out great and has weathered well. I don't have any interest in doing the plating myself but I do prep the stuff. I think you'll get better quality plating if the parts are thoroughly prepared. I too run stuff through a blast cabinet and when necessary wire wheel and even sand pitted areas. The smoother the surface the better it looks. I'm of the opinion that even though a plating company is suppose to run the parts through a cleaning tank I don't believe that means the conditions will always be acceptable for a good job. The way work loads rise and fall in any business some orders can get rushed and/or overlooked.

I recently took some spokes and nipples to a place in Bakersfield, Ca. and I'll be picking them up this next week. The cost for zinc on 80 spokes and nipples is $80. This place does a lot of stuff for restoration folks so they were very friendly. To my surprise they also offered a one year warranty against peeling and discoloration. After I pick them up this next week, I'll post pictures.

The guy I used was only $300 dollars for 6 bikes. That was chrome plating the kickers, shifters and chain adjusters in there.
I spent several months doing it myself and basically lost time. Kick myself cause I could have been further along.
Also, we wire everything together right there and it comes in box wire together so no parts get lost. He also snaps pics as documentation to cover himself.
Yes, if you are doing small amounts. You can do it yourself. But I would say whole bike? Why bother. Even though your standing there for couple weeks, doing it yourself. Need to figure in what your labor would be?
Just thought.

those shifters look good, better than NOS

Yeah, shifters look great