Kawasaki Triples Club

at the risk of going over old ground CHROMING AHHHG i have just been on steve smethursts web site[rechromed my h2 pipes absolute waste of money they were shite]and he,s quoting £390 +£100 to copper plate per pipe and asking you to sign a disclamer that if your not happy with them it,s tuff shit please[prettyplease] can you guys in the inner sanctum tell me where to go to get a decent chrome job at a fair price ps pipes need dings repaired as well

You have a PM

Hi Chris,

I remember talking to you at the Blackpool Rally about chroming exhausts. I know everyone will have their favourites and just because one of us gets a good job done somewhere doesn't guarentee the next guy will.

I had my H2 exhausts rechromed last winter by Marque Restore at Coventry and althought they weren't exactly quick I'm really pleased with the result. 3 exhausts and 3 downpipes were just short of £500. I repaired the dings myself before I sent them off.



Hope this helps.

Cheers, Andrew

The chrome bits on my H1F were done by R&S in Failsworth: http://www.rschrome.co.uk/
Like all places the quality of their work can be a bit variable, but their prices are good. The parts on this bike were done to a very good standard.

http://s553.photobucket.com/albums/jj39 ... 20project/

The exhausts cost £100 each
The mudguard, chainguard, grab rail, brake lever, gear lever, kickstart and all other little brackets, nuts and bolts etc. cost £170.

Recently they've been much more reliable with their time estimates for jobs - they did the exhausts in 2 weeks as promised, but I have waited much longer in the past

Pete

With R&S it depends, I think, on the quality of the original part, if it's in good nick they seem to do ok, if it's in poor condition they don't do so good, they don't copper first so any blemishes will still show up. I too have had exhausts done there but one still shows a lot of pitting, solid parts like kickstarts and gear levers have come op good, maybe it's the quality of the polishing prior to plating that's not so good.

It is all down to the prep as said and unfortunately exhaust are thin gauge metal so they can only be polished so much without making holes and if they are pretty rusty then the job will come out crap. I know from experience.

bbb wrote:With R&S it depends, I think, on the quality of the original part, if it's in good nick they seem to do ok, if it's in poor condition they don't do so good, they don't copper first so any blemishes will still show up. I too have had exhausts done there but one still shows a lot of pitting, solid parts like kickstarts and gear levers have come op good, maybe it's the quality of the polishing prior to plating that's not so good.

Yes it's all about the polishing. I was chatting to the polisher at R&S (about a Tiger 90 he had for sale ). It seems he's retired several times but they can't get anyone else so he pops in to help out. You can imagine that polishing this old crap isn't a very appealing job!

Chris Todd wrote:at the risk of going over old ground CHROMING AHHHG i have just been on steve smethursts web site[rechromed my h2 pipes absolute waste of money they were shite]and he,s quoting £390 +£100 to copper plate per pipe and asking you to sign a disclamer that if your not happy with them it,s tuff shit please[prettyplease] can you guys in the inner sanctum tell me where to go to get a decent chrome job at a fair price ps pipes need dings repaired as well

Hi Chris, I had a similar experience with steve smethurst with my h2 pipe, came back full of rust pits and yet still claimed the job 'turned out well' £330 down the pan and when I complained he tried to fob me off with a science lesson.

Hilly wrote: Hi Chris, I had a similar experience with steve smethurst with my h2 pipe, came back full of rust pits and yet still claimed the job 'turned out well' £330 down the pan and when I complained he tried to fob me off with a science lesson.

He's very good at the technical B.S..I have been on the end of it with a job "he" did for me..


things are not always what they seem..Use Leigh metal polishing in Manchester.nudge..nudge..wink..wink

You can`t make a silk purse out of a sows ear

Eric wrote:You can`t make a silk purse out of a sows ear

Exactly

The things have got to be good and solid the start with.

I thought Leigh Metal Polishing just did the polishing and used Mossley Electroplaters to do the chroming. If you have good solid exhausts (rare these days) R&S or other similar priced places will normally give good results (better than they were when they were new). If you want a perfect finish you can pay twice as much (or even more).

Pete

This is a topic that goes round and round. But Pete and Eric are speaking with realism and common sense.

I have an awful lot of pipes rechromed. And I have experience of most of the people already mentioned.

There are definitley two groups of customers. Realists and the other lot. You can`t expect a rechrome job, on a 40 year old piece of thin guage metal to like new. No matter what the cost is.

Unfortunately in some ways, Chromers do such a fair job of making a piece of crap look shiney : you get it once , pure luck , you expect it every time.
If I was a Chromer , and somebody asks me to chrome a silencer, I would warn them that I would do my best. BUT its 40 years old, rusts from the inside out , and is very thin metal. It gets thinner with polishing , and then shiney chrome will accentuate the new thinner thing by highllighting the baffle plates area etc. Also , sometimes there are pinholes appear all over once the original pipe is stripped.
At this point , The Chromer should probably just give it back to the customer " Nah, its fucked mate ." And charge him for his time. But more often than not they`ll chrome it , to see how it comes out.

So what do you want as customer ? They`ve done their best, its their time and money, and more than likely , they warned you at the beginning of the risk ?? ( I ALWAYS do when someone asks me to get pipes rechromed . ) But almost always, people don`t listen properly . ( Like the time scale. " 3-6 weeks depending........and they call in two weeks ," You said 3 weeks , its almost that now " )

Yes. The work standards between Chromers is variable. Some are better than others. Some take 3 months, others charge twice the price. But WE do not help by giving them crap to begin with , and then expecting perfection.
By the way, almost every chromer does the job better than the Factory did. Find an original wheel rim and look at the mass of score marks from the polishing. Or find a nos silencer and take a look at the finish on the back of it. ( Thats another thing, over-restoration !!! Triple plating ? KHI did not copper coat their chrome.

OK. Rant over.

petearis wrote:
I thought Leigh Metal Polishing just did the polishing and used Mossley Electroplaters to do the chroming.

They do!!!...The point i was making was that if you take something for chroming to Smethurst it goes to the above,he just puts his cut on..

I would be interested in having views on this question from folks who have had a lot of exhausts chromed.

Are you better off having a straight set ( probably from a british bike ) with thinish chrome redone or having a set with the usual battlescars but with decent chrome ( probably a US bike ) repaired then rechromed ?

Ta

kas750 wrote:The point i was making was that if you take something for chroming to Smethurst it goes to the above,he just puts his cut on..

I think the full chain is ... Steve strips them (or possibly gets Leigh Polishers to strip them). He then gets a musical instrument repairer to fix the dents, holes etc. then passes them to Leigh Polishers and finally Mossley platers. They all need paying and the end result is a high price. If they were good in the first place they would also be really nice.

If anyone needs chroming around the midlands .. try A F C Howell there in bilston i think, did some very nice work for me.. turnround in 7 days! at a very good price...
they do listen to what you want,they are production chromers so no over polishing etc and they call you to view the polished parts before they chrome them..

The " Leigh Loop " It can start in any sequence that one. Take it to Leigh M.P. first , and they`ll send it to Steve S. for degreasing first. Leigh MP charge a BIG amount for their part. But the polishing standard is exceptional.

What everyone has missed is that a lot of Chromers don`t Triple plate. And those that do , some only light coat the copper on. This helps rust resitance, but doesn`t give the silky lustre that Full Triple plating does. ( aka British show bike chrome. ) Although that is unaturally too good for a Jap bike.

Starting point of a " UK " pipe or a " US " pipe. is bollocks. If you want it perfect you need to start with a n.o.s. pipe . ( These invariably come from the States, AND they are dull/tarnished just from sitting on a shelf !!
There`s one of my old S2`s running around the N.E. now which has a n.o.s. centre silencer on it. Rechromed in Yorkshire ( nickel/chrome ) and it looks the bollocks.....because it was a perfect piece of metal to begin with.

Once you start vrazing and polishibg . The netal gets thin and there are variances in the "skin " tone of the finish. BUTstill better than the original factory finish. And the only way too hide that is to triple plate , as th copper is like a foundation coat. BUT back to it being too perfect !!!!

Judging by the number of views to this post chroming is an issue with us triple boys I didn't start this post as a steve smethurst slagging match[his engine re-finishing is exellent]but it seems i am not the only one dissapointed with his work.I fully accept nielthedon's comments and i know we expect a silk purse from a sows ear BUT surely the chromers know what can/cannot be achieved and should tell us before taking our hard earned,after allwe ARE paying for a service and should get that service, we wouldn't accept 'iv'e had my best shot but it's crap you owe me xxx£'s ' for other services we pay for any way enough ranting. back to my chroming issues here's some pic's Im I wasting my money getting these re-chromed? . I appriciate people posting pic's of their re-chroming and where they got it done but what i need is a one stop shop i have little tin work skills and no metal bashing equpment so need someone to do the repairs before chroming or a chromer that will do the whole job.
Getting back to the costs I have no idea how much the chroming process costs but if your talking £500 to do a pipe[mr smethurts top estimate] lets say £100 for the chroming that leaves £400 for repair labour at £40 an hour that's 10 hours work!! could polish pipe to dust in that time
have you guys got some before and after pic's you could post and an idea of the costs?
Could anyone pm me and leave a phone no so we could have a chat about chroming Cheers Chris

Chris,

PM sent.

Andrew