bertram31.com

My apologies- this topic comes up often an there is a lot of info in the archives. However, times change, people go out of business, etc.

I just spent 3 hours removing my instrument panel on my flybridge. Tomorrow I am doing the same on the lower station. Labeled every wire an hope to heck I get it all back together!

Anyway, I need a good place to get 2 panels, 4 air scoops and maybe a few other items rechomed. Anyone had an exceptionally good experience with someone lately who they would recommend?

Thanks

Mack...

I just had my two 27 year old Lee Senior outrigger bases rechromed by a smallish "local" shop (about 100 miles away) and am very happy with the results. I paid about $850.. the owner admitted business has been slow lately and he cut me a very good price.. and he had the work completed in 14 days. I got 4 quotes, one in FL (who Lee uses today) one in NJ, and two here in NC.. the highest quote was $1,300. One of the potential problems I was concerned about is that freight charges for the rechroming to be done in a place I could not drive to would have been horrendous, so that naturally had an effect on the overall decision. The other thing is I wanted to discuss some issues about not getting chrome on the female threads of some parts, and in two cases I wanted an assembly of parts rechromed as if they were one single part. Also.. I wanted to see all the finished parts before paying for them so I would be sure I was happy with the work.

No shop I spoke with would make an estimate unless they had pictures of the parts, or could see them in person, so I took several pics showing all the parts, plus closeups of some of the small parts.. in all pics I included a ruler so they could estimate the sizes of individual parts, plus they all wanted to know the total weight.

Based on the above I would suggest you try to find a shop near you.. but if you can't find someone reasonably near you I would be happy to have you send the parts to me and we can talk about any issues you have so I can personally deliver them, and explain what details or concerns you might have.

IR guy-
Great suggestions. The shipping charges r/t could really add up.

I appreciate your offer to play point with your guy down there. I may take you up on it, but in the meantime I am going to take a hard look around here and see what I come up with (I am in Annapolis, MD). About 5 years ago I did a bow chock with a company near me in Baltimore and the darn thing is already pitted despite an annual pollish job. That being said, quality is important to me.

I wish I had a way to evaluate the quality of the job I had done. All I can say is that they look beautiful today. I did speak for quite a while with the owner, and left with a pretty good feeling about him.. but 5 years down the line I will find out if he was BSing me.

Drop me an email if you need anything.

If you were further north, I'd recommend Nassau Plating on Long Island.
I had lot's of stuff rechromed there and it came out absolutely gorgeous.
The owners are also former B31 owners as well. However, as mentioned before, shipping costs could add up.
However, 5 years later everything still looks like the day I picked it up.

I would check with American Electroplating. They are in NJ. Call 973-427-2300. they did my boat, and 99% of the stuff still looks great and its been minimum 5 years.

The fellow at the time was Dave Mitchell. I am not sure if he is still there.

Give it a shot. Good pricing, great service and good quality.

Also, he is very familiar with B31 stuff. He has done a lot of it...

Dug

American did my stuff and it was fine.

American does some great work. They are in Hawthorne, NJ.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will give American a call. Perhaps I will start with the lightweight stuff and see how they do.

Dug- did they do your outriggers? I have my original ones (not mounted on the boat) and have been considering restoring them at some point. Unfortunatley a few of the swivel bases are siezed up so would be more involed than just a rechrome. I should have purchased yours a few years back!

Mack - shoot the seized up parts with red CX, repeat in a few days and let them sit for a week or 2....I had a set that was totally frozen up and this got them loose just fine.

UV

Mack,

Metro Plating is the only location I found in the DC area:

http://www.metroplating.com/

The owner's name is Steve. He loves boaters - says they always pick up and pay on time! :-D

I had some small parts re-chromed for my B25. Price and initial quality was good. I can't vouch for longevity as they are still in the box (my restoration timeframe is measured in years).

Good luck

Yes Mack, they did. And they did a beautiful job.

I will tell you that Vic is right for the separating of seized parts.

I was REALLY lucky to have a toolroom full of machinists to help take them apart and even more importantly to re-assemble. Re-chroming the outriggers was big job, as each of the threaded holes needed to be chased after the chroming, and it had to be done right. I did not do it. I let professionals do it.

But yes, they did do the re-chroming. The money or real cost was in the toolmaker's time to put it all back together...

Dug

I see from other posts that Dave Mitchell is no longer at American Electroplating. Has anybody had parts rechromed since he left? How was the work? Thanks.

American did some work for me about 2 years ago. Did a real nice job.

Just had a deck fill done by American. Looks great. Will be sending them some more stuff.

I'm in East-Central Florida. Incase there are any folks interested, I'm having my deck hardware rechromed here (about 15 min from my house).

http://spacecoast-plating.com/

Paul J
'73 B28 - PALADIN