Who does chrome plating?

[SteveF]

Does anybody know somewhere in the NW that does hard chrome plating - my suspension wishbones are looking a bit untidy, and I could do with getting them re-chromed.

For anybody interested in using gelcoat (I had a thread going on the old BBS about this), I've now successfully filled the holes in the side panels left by the clamshells, and have a few tips out of the experience:

1) The hardner required for the gelcoat is Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide - sold as Butanox M50 or Scott Bader Catalyst M. The ratio is officially 2% by weight, but 2% by vol is near enough. Scott Bader's local agent for the NW is in Denton (0161 336 0766), I got mine from Stevens at Sandbach (01270 529111) - they gave me some good technical advice as well

2) According to Bridget Ringrose at Scott Bader, "The repair should be carried out in dry conditions with a minimum continuous temperature of 15 Deg. C. The moulding should be kept in these conditions for a minimum of week". I was working in a garage with a fan heater, the temperature was around 15 C most of the time for the initial gelling, but may have dropped overnight - so far I've not had a problem with it.

3) I turned my gelcoat into 'flowcoat' by the addition of 2% vol of wax - what Stevens describe as 'Tack free solution', this meant that I could just leave the surface of the 'gelcoat' open to the air, and it would 'dry' rather than remaining tacky  - a lot easier than having to seal the surface!

4) I prepared the panels by chamfering the edges of the holes to make sure there was no loose gelcoat (in some cases this meant making the holes a bit bigger :0, as the original holes weren't that tidy), and 'carving out' cracks in the gelcoat, so that the new coat could bond.

5) I patched the inside of the holes with a piece of fiberglass mat to give a surface to work fill onto. I also built up the depth in the holes a little with some isopon p40 - for smaller holes I just used the p40.

6) For measuring out the hardner & wax I bought a couple of 'baby medicine syringes' (used for squirting nasty medicines into the mouths of screaming brats! ) from the local chemist - a couple of quick checks told me that it was approximately 30 drops per ml, so 3 drops per 0.1 ml.

7) I made up small batches of gelcoat, of 20 ml of resin and 0.4 ml of hardner & wax (12 drops each), which started to gel (and become unworkable) in about 20-30 mins. I rarely used more than about 1/4 of what I had made, but smaller batches were too awkward to measure accurately.

8) I applied the first coat of gelcoat on the hole using a plastic spatula, leveling off the surface with a flat edge. After this had dried (gave it a day or so), I flattened the surface down with a stanley knife blade (this isn't Blue Peter so I can use the real name! ), scraping it across the surface, and checked there were no 'edges' showing through - if there were - it was a case of cutting them back as with previous 'cracks'. the surface was also 'scratched' to give a better surface for the next layer to bond to.

9) the next (final) coat of gelcoat was applied with a brush (there is a small amount of shrinkage in the gelcoat, so the surface won't be flat after the 1st coat if the gelcoat was quite thick), and deliberately applied it to raise the surface above the panel. When this layer has dried, the surface was again levelled with the stanley knife blade, and then sanded with 800 grade wet & dry. (I did go as far as trying 2000 grade w&d - but didn't get any better results over 800)

10) The final polish was done using Brasso which gives you back the deep shine

Finally - thanks to all the people who gave me advice, and my sponsors Stanley & Brasso (now waiting for the royalty cheques to roll in   )

Steve

P.S. edited to correct spelling & grammar

[Westfieldman]

Prestige platers

unit 9

Station road industrial estate

Wombwell

Barnsly

South Yourkshire

S73 0AH

Tel 01226 751389

[Andy @ Cat]

Yup SteveF,

Prestige is the place to go.

[russbif]

Diamond Metal Finishing

Stoke on Trent

ask for Steve Pendleton,

01782 822442

[SimonT]

SteveF,

Thanks for posting your experience with gelcoat. It will be really useful for me as I have a few repairs to perform. I had been messing around with hardner and gelcoat without much success - I'll give your method a try.

SimonT

[eusdean]

hi Stevef

Thanks for an excellent piece on gel coat, however could you expand a bit further on the wax used and where you got it.

Thanks

eusdean

[SteveF]

The wax is 'Tack free solution' from Stevens - They are in Sandbach in Cheshire

The website has product, prices, and some useful information on fibreglassing techniques - they are also good people to talk to if you can't find exactly what you want.

Steve

[N_J]

Steve, Did you have any 'star burst'cracks to fill ? If so how did you go about this?

Nigel

[SteveF]

Nigel

I did a couple of them on the main body (not wings - as they'd just been replaced and so were unmarked - going to coat them on the underside with latex paint - yumee!! ) - I mentioned them in the main post as 'cracks'.

You need to carve out along the lines of the crack to give a small 'V' (only just go through the gelcoat layer if you can) so that the gelcoat can bond.

You're probably best levelling down the painted surface with wet & dry for these fine cracks as using a stanley knife blade can 'pull' the gelcoat out of these cracks (I found this out the hard way! )

If the cracks are on the wings - you may be best putting a glass fibre matting patch on the underside of the wing as well, as you may have lost a bit of strength there.

Hope this helps

Steve

[N_J]

Looks like I have quite a bit of work to do then. The cracks start at the bottom of the rear wheel arch and go up about 1/4 of the way .. and lots of them.   That'll teach me not to let the wife drive the car !

[Blatman]

Now now Nigel, you can't blame her for giving it a good go   She was going for a time after all  

[N_J]

Now I'm doing time in the garage in the winter ! Keeps me out of the house I supose.. anyway got to make it faster now that I have been 'demoted' to the A class .   Got to get some new rubber as well cos mine aint on the list for next year.

[Blatman]

Have you seen next years list then?

Anything we should know?

[N_J]

Havent seen the list but phoned up MSA just to check my black stuff. They did tell me that S03's and Yoko S306's are now on the list. It will be published mid next month for the blue book.

[Blatman]

Yoko s306's?? What's them then?