Pot metal pitting

[Martin Michaels]

Hello all, Can pot metal pitting be repaired at home? Does Muggy weld work? Can J-B weld be platted over? Does anyone have a at home fix or is it best just  to send it to a platter and be done with it. Marty

[Mike Josephic CLC #3877]

Marty:

The way pot metal pits are repaired in a professional shop is as follows.  First, the pits
are drilled out to remove all of the corrosion.  Then, they are filled with silver solder and
then buffed / filed flush.  Following that, copper plating then the usual nickel, then chrome.

This is something you can't do at home in your shop.  Depending on the condition of the
piece, this can be a rather expensive proposition.  Beware of shops that simply buff the
piece down to remove the pits and then re-plate them.  This will remove all of the detail
on an intricate piece and will ruin it.

Ask to see some of the shops work on pot metal before you leave your pieces with them.

Mike 

[Martin Michaels]

Thanks Mike, Just what I thought, leave it to the pro's. Marty

[cadillacmike68]

This will probably be the very last thing I get done on my DVC. Just too expensive.

[Christopher Smith]

This is timely.  I have some 53 eyebrows that were expensive, even heavily pitted.  I'm going to send them to a reputable chrome to get a quote.  I'll repost here to tell you what they say, with pix so you can visualize what I'm talking about.

If they can chrome them nice, within reason, I can make some money on them, or use them on my 50.

[Glen]

One of the jobs I had while I was working at the shipyard was brush plating. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroplating#Brush_electroplating
Brush plating is plating with a “brush” made of a wand with a carbon tip covered in cotton and a covering to help protect the cotton.  The cotton is then soaked in plating solution.  There is a power supply much like a battery charger to provide the electricity. 

The job was to fix hull fittings on the submarines.  The O rings in the hull fitting would hold dirt/salt/whatever and the fitting would corrode even though it was made of monel. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monel
After wire brushing I would reverse plate to remove as much oxide as possible.  Then I would alternately plate with copper and sand.  The copper would stay in the pits but would be mostly removed from the surface.  I would do that until the pits were filled.  A final plating of copper topped with nickel would complete to process.  In the end you could not tell were the pits were. 

I wonder if a process like that (minus the nickel) would work for chrome plating.  It is a labor intensive process but if the piece is rare it might be worth it. 

[rich neary]

Coming in a little late on this thread, Holidays and all....
Check this out. If you're not going to Pebble, this might be the answer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-1cTpSZ1l8

Has anyone here tried it?
Happy New Year all .. 2014  Holy Crap!!
Rich

[joeceretti]

Spray on Chrome is not always cheaper and is always less durable than chrome. The biggest part of the repair cost is the repair of the pits. I recently spoke with a local dealer of the product and he said, "Don't put this product on your Cadillac."