Can I repolish Copy Chrome?

[poco]

My first attempt at plating did not turn out so great. I have a 25 square inch cover for my '42 Harley transmission that had been previously plated. First off, it took a lot longer to deplate (about half the original plating had peeled) than I thought. I placed the part in 30% hydrochloric acid (straight from the jug - the jug said it was 33% so I figure I did not have to dilute it). Even with a battery charger hooked to it, set at 2 amps (I had a copper pipe as the cathode), it took 45 minutes, and still did not get all the old plating off. It was quite thick and easy to detect where it was still on. Since the worst part was in a place you cannot see when it is installed, I just sanded/buffed the rest off.

Now to the plating. After buffing, cleaning and degreasing (I read one post here by the moderator that ALL(?) parts must be acid dipped right before plating. Is that true for steel, or just the copper that was the subject of that post?), I put one plate, wrapped in its bandage (only needed to plate one side of the cover), the filter pump, and the part, suspended from the tank rod (copper pipe), and screwed in two 200 mv bulbs for current control (12v battery -with charger attached). After 1.5 hrs, I took the piece out (I figured if I over plated a bit, it would give me some material to buff if it needed it.) Needless to say, it really needed rebuffing. It was grey with some streaking, and lots of orange peel. I buffed it back to what it looked like before plating.

THE QUESTIONS:

1. How do I know if I buffed through the plating back down to the steel? I would hate to reinstall this cover only to see it rust later.

2. What did I do wrong? Isn't the plate supposed to be shiny right out of the tank? I buffed the piece until it looked like it was already chromed before plating.

3. Why did the stripping take so long? (BTW, I almost choked to death deplating using Muriatic Acid - Nasty fumes!)


Observation... When you strip old plating, you may also be stripping a lot of work that the original plater did, like filling pits, etc. That's what I discovered, thus this process is not EXACTLY "one step" when it comes to replating. The job looks OK, and is good enough, but it sure is not as "flat" (you painters will know what I mean) as the original.

Thanks.