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 Plating boothA six by four (feet) plastic greenhouse was used as a plating booth. This ensured all chemicals and processes could be carried out in a safe and 'sealed' area. An extractor fan and length of ducting was used to remove any fumes |  Replica chrome setupThis is is Nickel based plating process In this case I am plating the dynamo casing (see video below). Different shaped containers can be used for long narrow items such as the fluted tank emblems |  This is the dynamo casing before plating |
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 And here it is after |  And here it is after |  These are the fluted tank emblems as taken of the bike |
 The top emblem had been cleaned back to,what appeared to be the origional brass base metal. I was then polished, cooper plated, polished again and then chrome plated. The bottom one showsthe copper plating stage |  Headlamp rim, kickstart and gear lever following the polish, copper plate and chrome plate process. The replica chrome has a slight brown tinge...because it is in fact Nickel . The fork seal holder in the centre is ''proper' chrome for comparrison |  Other items which I chrome plated |
 And these are zinc plated parts. These can be left dull, much like a cadmium finish, or polished to an almost chrome like finish |
The 'home plating' kit for Replica Chrome, Zinc and copper plating came from Gaestros plating. The quality you get is dependent on how well you polish the item before plating. I used a combination of wet and dry paper, emery clotch and then a polishing kit, bought from Ebay, that uses a bench grinder to spin the mops. Takes a lot of time but the results can be impressive. It is great to be able to salvage a lot of the engine studs and other fastners. Regarding nuts and bolts it does not make sense to spend hours plating them. I bought from the internet, in particular Nookys Nuts. I generally used zinc plated, stainless would have been nice and I can always replace with stainless if I get the urge.
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