Chrome Plating BIG Things

Would be great to gold plate my second truck, 1986' Dodge RAM

350... Please post some information if you find out! i

Polished stainless?

In all likelihood it was not chromed. More likely made of stainless and polished, or aluminum, polished and "brightened". Usually on tankers it is stainless.What isn't solid stainless may have stainless covers. The wheels may be chrome plated aluminum alloys.

Probably polished stainless. Chrome plating takes 1 to 1.5 amps per square inch. Do the math. Chrome-plating a semi-tanker would take what some might regard as a serous bunch of DC amps.

Or wheel covers, which look pretty good on big truck wheels.

(Many) years ago when I was a high-school physics teacher, we used a series of films from the PSSC (the Physical Science Study Committee -- created to improve physics education after Sputnik). One of these was from the "Magnet Lab" at one of the better-known universities (Harvard?). In it they demonstrated how parallel conductors are attracted toward each other, and how conductors carrying current in the opposite direction are repelled from each other, with half-inch solid copper bars! The physicist on camera would call to someone off camera to "give me a thousand amps", and then "give me another thousand amps" and so forth. The parallel bars, mounted several inches apart, would bend toward each other when the current got high enough. A U-shaped conductor tried to become a circle. Pretty impressive. I can't remember how many total DC amps they ended up using, but it demonstrated magnetic effects very effectively. That set of films as outstanding and a lot of fun.

Scientists in the Netherlands used a strong magnetic field to make a frog float. (scroll about 1/2 way down the page)

And the frog didn't even seem to mind. ERS

I'm certain that it was polished stainless. However, if you really want to "chrome" something large, there are some new chrome colored powders available for powder coating that are pretty convincing. Ask your local powder coater and they can definitely get their hands on some for you.

John P.

you guys are reminding me of something i saw on the internet. i couldn't remember if i heard about it through this group, i think not, i think it was posted to Ranger Power Sports.

these are not the best shots of it. i tried the manufacturers website but for some reason their links to this shiny car are not working for me.

(toward the bottom of the page, thumbnail photos "mtm Audi A8 D3 polished"

ah, here it is, got through somehow...

there's other links to it, and it's story out there. they said not everything is aluminum/chrome, some is painted plastic (bumpers etc.).

i usually don't like "chrome" but this car looks pretty cool.

b.w.

Gasoline tank bodies are mostly built from rolled Aluminum plate, and they get shiny from lots and lots and lots and lots of buffing. They don't make plating tanks that big.

The little things that are Stainless can be buffed out, and the brass or carbon steel parts can be dipped in the 'Shiny Stuff' plating tank relatively easily, for exposed nuts and hardware they make plated cover caps that snap over the carbon-steel hardware. The ALCOA Forged Aluminum wheels can be ordered factory polished.

The frame rails on the tractor would be a huge problem - they're HSLA steel, hence the big "Do NOT Weld Cut Or Drill The Frame Rails" stickers on both sides - which is why they come pre-punched like a Swiss cheese. If you want to add another fuel tank bracket or something, just find a convenient hole and use it.

I suppose you could order the truck custom and get the bare frame rails chrome plated before assembly begins, but you're going to pay some serious coin for that option.

-->--

I actually saw one on the 405 some time back. Chromed frame rails on a dairy tanker..then things slowed down..and I was able to take a better look..and it was an over sleeve..or cover on the outside of the frame rails. Looking into the frame..the inside of the rails were black and you could see the attachment bolts

Gunner

The aim of untold millions is to be free to do exactly as they choose and for someone else to pay when things go wrong.

In the past few decades, a peculiar and distinctive psychology has emerged in England. Gone are the civility, sturdy independence, and admirable stoicism that carried the English through the war years . It has been replaced by a constant whine of excuses, complaints, and special pleading. The collapse of the British character has been as swift and complete as the collapse of British power.

Theodore Dalrymple,

Probably felt like a magic fingers back massage.

I used to work on an arc heater for one of our wind tunnels that was under construction at UT Arlington. When it was to be used, we had to notify the power company so that they wouldn't trip our substation offline when the heater fired up. I don't remember exactly how much power it consumed over all, but the DC power panel showed 2000 volts and 1000 amps as nominal operating levels to fire the heater. The converters and control system added a bunch of required power on top of that.

Craig C.

Does that apply to the end of the frame behind the rear axle, on a typical medium/heavy duty straight truck? Body fabricators around here invariably weld ICC bumpers and trailer hitches to the rear of the frame channels, with apparently no ill effects.

I used to work for a chemical co that had electrolytic cell lines for chlorine production. The cell lines typically ran at 800VDC, 60,000 amps. The DC bus bars were 10" x 20" solid aluminum logs. Occasionally, an operator would get too close to the bus bars with a pair of channelocks in his pocket only to have them to leap out of his pocket and attach themselves to the bus.

Randy

The Milwaukee Road railroad ran straight electric locomotives over the Montana Rocky and the Washington Cascade mountains. A train going up might draw 6000 amperes at 3000 volts DC. Going down, it would regenerate maybe

1/2 to 1/4 of that back into the lines.

The system had a 100,000 volt AC "highline" that roughly followed the railroad right-of-way. Every 25 miles or so was a large brick substation. The 100,000 volts was transformed to about 11,000 volts and that ran synchronous motors that turned DC generators to make the 3000 volts DC. Everything was designed so that it would run "backwards" and feed the breaking energy back into the highline and run the watthour meters backwords as the trains came down the hills.

Well, if the only thing that's back there at the very end of the frame rails is the ICC bumper, it's not normally a high stress area and it'll probably be fine. The lady in the Honda that plows into it at 70 while looking down to dial her cellphone, however... >_<

If they did the same thing (welding, drilling, cutting) in a stressed area like the vicinity of the saddle hitch or the rear axle hard-points, or they stick a pintle hitch on that welded-on rear bumper for towing a trailer with a real load in it, then they beat on the truck hard, you'd soon have a two-piece frame-rail from a crack in the Heat Affected Zone or a stress riser around a hole.

"Cracks Happen." And lawyers happen too, hence the sticker.

I'm sure there's a proper welding process and post-weld heat treat that can be followed to avoid cracking, but I have no idea what it is. I know what I don't know, and the solution is to go find an expert first before making big trouble for myself.

Note that on straight trucks the box body isn't welded to the truck chassis, it's held on with big U-bolts around the frame rails, and/or with plates and tabs bolted through existing frame holes.

-->--

It was stainless- You can buy stainless sheet prepolished, with a plastic cover sheet on it. You roll it, or bend it, peel back enough of the plastic to not catch on fire when you weld it. You can also electropolish stainless- which means no buffing. They use a big DC power supply, hooked up the reverse polarity of what you would use for plating- so the top layer of stainless is being stripped off. They do this in a mild acid bath, usually heated- it will give you a mirror like shine on stainless bar, round, or sheet. They also use a similar process to electropolish the INSIDE of stainless pipes in factories like Coke plants and dairies- plug the ends, fill with acid, and add electricity. Then drain and rinse, and the insides of the pipes are shiny and clean.