I'll say don't go to Badger plating in Milwaukee. All of the aluminum parts were supposed to be triple plated but it appears they were not. We were disappointed with the quality of several parts and it took months to get the work done. And it wasn't exactly cheep - I think plating the upper and lower tab plates were $700.

yes ,,these guys do excellent work,,they did,do all the chrome for me and on my boat..and also do alot mo motorcycle(harley) chroming as well.

I would expect a better finish, being your tabs, are not in the condition of their before and after pictures. Looks like they can bring appearance back from some really abused parts.

Wow, thats pricey! Maybe I should call them and be like wtf!?!? $700 and it didn`t even last a year ?!?! Thats b.s.
How recently did Kirk have it done Kris?

dan,i used to send a lot of motorcycle parts to browns plating in kentucky,they are not cheep but they do a 7 layer plating and no one does it better.

I wouldn't chrome anything that is intended to stay under water any length of time. If you can anodize the aluminum first you are always better off as anodizing is a surface conversion not an applied coating. Contrary to popular belief It will not come off. I rerigged a boat several years ago and hard coat anodized everything, transom assembly, trim tabs, etc and then painted with a single stage polyurethane. The main benefit is if you get a nick or scratch in the finish the ensuing corrosion will be localized to that one spot and go no further. Unlike coated parts that are not anodized when a nick or scratch occurs the corrosion can grow underneath the coating and eventually a large chunk of the coating (paint) will come off revealing a large corroded area.

You seem to have a preference for shiny (chrome), me too, but that doesn't always go hand in hand with marine, usually that option is best left for stainless steel items that can be polished. Bright anodizing is ok but the brightest finish comes from the right base metal that is perfect, uncorroded, polished and followed with a light anodizing, the anodizing will tone down the brilliance and the heavier the anodizing the less brilliant the part will be. Colored anodizing will fade in the sunlight, although the anodizing will still protect the material for a very long time, the colored dye will bleach out to nothing rather quickly. A good compromise might be to hard coat anodize the parts first and then have a nice translucent powder coating applied over, something with a silver chrome looking base followed by whatever color over that. Perhaps just clear top coat will provide a nice semi-chrome appearance that will last. Hope this helps.

I tried complaining about some of the stuff on my boat and the best they would do is give me a 10% discount on my next job.

It has been a few years since the those parts were plated.

I learned as you will, most plating places do not plate aluminum and the ones that do charge heavy for it. Between my brother and me we spent a few grand plating the aluminum on our boats.

What about getting them polished, and putting a protective coating on them? This product looks interesting. Read some good reviews on it. Guys are doing their motorcycle wheels and car wheels with it after polishing, and holding up for years.

http://www.everbritecoatings.com/alu...protection.htm

http://www.ascoweb.com/

James Sejd; owner of above use to race an aluminum boat (Riveted) among others. I'd venture to say he knows a thing or two about metal coatings on boats.

Mike, Are your sure that's not Browns, in Georgia. I have sent them parts for chroming, it took for ever and was high in price too me. My one customer, told me to send it to Browns, out of Georgia. He used them for his car restorations. We sent valve covers, breathers, pulleys, hine joint tie bars, flame arrestors, billet alternator brackets, oil filter mounts, lifting brackets, billet power steering brackets, and billet PS canisters. I think it was $1500- $1700.

Mark