Hi all,
need an opinion on something here. Basically I need to know if I'm being too picky or if i have a legitimate complaint. A couple months ago I sent some pot metal parts for my '55 coupe to a fairly well known chrome shop to be replated. Cost was not really an object; finding a plater that would be willing to work with my parts was. One was a very large parking light housing that had a chip broken out of it - it was the best that I could find. The other was a somewhat pitted but mostly good taillight housing.
I received the parts today - they are very nice and shiny, however, the taillight housing's backside seems to have little to no plating on it at all, and what there is is white, powdery, bubbling and flaking. The parking light housing is also quite nice looking, however, there are some obvious "waves" in the formerly flat surfaces where it looks like someone was grinding out pits by hand and didn't do that artistic a job. Also, around the light lens, the contours are a little "off." Finally, the actual repair of the chip is a little "off" as well, although that's not such a big deal as it's hidden behind the bumper. The backside of this shows a couple large bubbles as well, although they do not appear to be loose and overall it looks like a much better job than the taillight housing.
Don't get me wrong, the parts will go on my car as it's "only a driver." However, if I were a concours weenie, I would consider these parts unacceptable. Based on the copy on their web site and print ads I expected a little better. I think I got an "OK" price, but now I have a parking light housing that probably cannot ever be restored to perfect now...
Do you all think I'm being overly critical here? Esp. in the case of the taillight housing, I feel like I have to "fix" the chrome shop's work before I put it on the car so it doesn't corrode away to nothing. There's really nothing to be done with the parking light housing at this point, and I gave all but one of my other cores away at a swap meet because I thought this was a done deal.
If I have any chrome work that I want done in the future, does anyone have a recommendation for a good chrome shop that is willing and able to deal with pitted and broken pot metal? This shop that I'm discussing was the only one that was willing to deal with my parts, and I called all the ones recommended by people I knew.
thanks,
nate
PS - before you ask, the shop was NOT Forrester's or Librandi's - neither wanted to touch my parking light housing, and I appreciate that. I've never dealt with Librandi's but the few pieces Jerry has done for me came out OK.
PPS - I have NO luck with getting potmetal chromed it seems... the last pieces I had done - at a different shop - were a battle to get finished, and apparently according to the buyer of the car (I'd already sold the car by the time I got the parts back!) they got the curvature wrong, so they need to be reworked anyway!