Back light - rechroming

rogerh
Fri, 15 Apr 2005 15:07:23 +0000

Hello guys. True, the taillight housings are made of “pot metal”. I was told something inherent in the metal reacts over time to create the blisters and pits.
My first attempt at this went like this: I took my housings to a local plating company. He “stripped” off the chrome, probably by reverse electrolysis. He then put one coating of copper onto them. I got very impatient with their slow progress and took them home. The problem was of course the pits, which need to be drilled out and filled. I bought some of the low-temperature stick solder and tried to fill the holes myself, but I was no good at it. I still have those hideous housings.
Fast forward a few years. Needig tailights now, I found the best housings I could and sent them to a plating company in Canada. I don’t know what they did to re-plate them, but they came back to me in less than two weeks, and are beautiful. I tore the original bulbsockets out of the housings. With the re-plated housings, I simply went down to the auto parts store and bought some “springy-fingered” replacement sockets and popped them in.
There may be a way to save the originals..you must remove the contact plate and wires of course, which can be re-installed later, IF you are lucky and the chromeplate isnt so thick that the bulb won’t go back into the socket.
Now as for cost..sorry to say I don’t keep records, but my guess is $400.
I also would have to think hard to remember the plating company’s name.