Gene, looks like you are really trying your best.
The Copy Chrome has a very slight blue tint compared to regular nickel, however, it is still nickel.
If you start out with a mirror like base surface and then Copy Chrome and polish the part, you will swear it looks just like real chrome until you put it next to real chrome....then you notice the color difference.
With what you are trying to do (by plating just the pitted/bare areas) you will never get it to look right.
As you had mentioned in your post, strip off all of the chrome, get down the the base metal and sand/polish the living daylights out of it using a power buffer, clean well, then Copy Chrome the part. It will look real nice.
You can never get the part to look the same "color" as chrome, however, if there is nothing close by to compare it to, no one will be able to really tell the difference but you.
I ran into a similar dilemma on my 64 PUCH I am restoring. I had about (50) parts that I Copy Chromed (and they all looked like a million bucks), however, some parts were almost or directly next to, some real chrome items.
I had to take the large items down to the chromer (too large for me to do) so I took about 1/2 of the Copy Chrome parts down to be "real chromed". You don't even want to know what the final costs are going to be. OUCH! Lets just say it cost more then the entire motorcycle cost when it was new. The price we pay for perfection.
George W.
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