Copy Chrome rust showing through

[LeeParsons]

I recently plated some bolts for a license plate bracket with Copy Chrome. It has been about a week and one little rain storm and they are showing rust. Is this a charactoristic of Copy Chrome? Is it not durable enought for exposure to the elements? Did I mess up (probably)?

I did 4 on the front plate and 2 on the rear, only front is showing rust. Plared a couple of items under the hood (wing nuts and the like) and it is doing fine.

Any tips, trick or suggestions?

Thanks,
Lee

[charlton]

I'm not the expert friend but I'm thinking it's said that Chrome is extremely pourous and therefore you have to nickel plate underneath it to prevent rust?

But then you probably did that I would suspect?

[dadkar2]

What method did you use to prepare the part prior to plating? Also, did you use a copper plate before the copy chrome? For corrosion resilience I'd recommend a copper pre-plate before the final finish with copy chrome.

If there were voids created by small spots of oxidation or a microscopic film of grease, you may have a porous plate. Copy chrome isn't quite as resilient to the elements as real triple chrome, but it is significantly more resilient than what you are describing.

Ken

[jimcarry]

Originally Posted by LeeParsons

I recently plated some bolts for a license plate bracket with Copy Chrome. It has been about a week and one little rain storm and they are showing rust. Is this a charactoristic of Copy Chrome? Is it not durable enought for exposure to the elements? Did I mess up (probably)?

I did 4 on the front plate and 2 on the rear, only front is showing rust. Plared a couple of items under the hood (wing nuts and the like) and it is doing fine.

Any tips, trick or suggestions?

Thanks,
Lee

What time frame did you use for plating these bolts it possible that they were not plated long enough to achieve maximum thickness. Because copy chrome is a cobalt nickel solution I don’t think adding nickel to the plated object will make much of a deference . You may try extending the time in your sp de greaser also you should use a protectant such as zoop seal .