Gold plating car emblems

If this is going to be a one or two times work, it is better to find a gold plating company and ship the embems to them. Many of them can be found online. People gold plate oddest things, such as tire rims or truck bumpers, etc.

Brush plating works fine on emblems and isn't terribly expensive to get started with.

Thanks Don, the plug'n'plate looks like it will do the job.

Dave

Don't.

On Sat, 01 Apr 2006 01:49:20 +0100, with neither quill nor qualm, Andy Dingley quickly quoth:

Indeed. Removing the emblems will the the largest amount of work and will subject the paint to chipping, the emblems/tabs to breakage, and all sorts of other good stuff. Adding to that, many of the new car emblems are stick-on, so plating might be a real nightmare IF possible.

- Interpreted Interpolations Done Dirt Cheap. -----------

They don't have to be removed to brush-plate them.

On Fri, 31 Mar 2006 22:28:36 -0600, with neither quill nor qualm, Don Foreman quickly quoth:

Cool. That process sounds worth looking into. Can one brush-plate a chromed piece of plastic?

- Interpreted Interpolations Done Dirt Cheap. -----------

Well Andy, now there's some really helpful advice. Care to elaborate?

I don't think it works on chrome. It works best on a nickle or tin base -- which also won't stick to chrome.

But they very likely will be after they are plated. Little thugs love stealing gold emblems, and BMW emblems, and Mercedes emblems, etc. They usually damage the paint in the process.

Can you brush-plate onto non conductors? How do you prepare the surface?

You can get stuff in a rattlecan that applies a conductive film. There are undoubtedly other methods as well; they've been "bronzing" baby shoes for decades.

Ah. You haven't actually done this, have you 8-(

I have brush-plated with gold, but I have not done non-conductive objects. However,

I think they used to have the conductive stuff in a rattlecan; now it looks like one would need an airbrush or one of those Preval disposable spray devices to apply it.

Note that they do not recommend it for brushplating applications. I guess you'd have to immersion plate with nickle first; then you could brush-plate gold for color.