Rocker cover Chroming

[welshhealey]

Hi all

I have just managed to get hold of a rocker cover for my 6 cyl. Moonfleet which is in better condition than the one I had with the boat. However the previous owner had it chromed earlier in its life but has been in storage for so long it is now pretty badly pitted with rust "pimples" I've been to my local metal polish firm ( who I've used many times) only to be told it's passed the stage of being polished out and needs to be re-chromed.. so off I trot to the local electroplaters , he took one look at it, pulled a face and said cant do much with that, (to my bitter disappointment ) and suggested I wire brush it and paint it! unless I get the sludge and gunk off it do some prep work myself . so, first of all, whats the best material(s)/ liquid to remove 50 year old sludge,? (petrol has removed some but not all) and do I get it finely shot-blasted on the outside prior to the 2nd attempted visit to the happy helpful man at the electroplaters ?

[eastcoast]

clean it with caustic soda, not sure I would re-chrome, it looks nice but has tendency to peel off inside and does very nasty things to main bearings etc. Safer to get it enamelled.

[welshhealey]

Many thanks Eastcoast for your advice, and after reading your reply, I noticed that inside the cover has never been chromed. Once I got most of the sludge off, it was the original tan/brown factory colour thats on the previous cover I had ! I even scraped a sharp object over a small area, and bare metal emerged, no sign of flaking or any bits, so there must be a way of just chroming the outside ? which is baffling me cos I thought they had to dipped in a tank of some sort

[bigminiandy]

The Chrome rocker cover thats on my consul/zephyr 4 engine isnt chromed inside. Surely when they are dipped for chroming the old and nasty stuff is chemically stripped first????

[eastcoast]

The platers will clean it b4 dipping. tell them you want the outside only, they will mask the inside, usually with plastic film, then dip it, paint will also keeps surface clear of being chromed.