electroplating billet aluminium

[motoc]

i just bought a brush on plating system. i want to gold plate a small portion of billet wheels on my motorcycle. how can i do this

[mcaswell]

It's virtually impossible to brush plate onto aluminum. You need to dip in Zincate solution first, then immersion plate.

[motoc]

does this mean i can't gold plate just a small part of the wheel? i only want to accent very small area, not entire wheel

[mcaswell]

You can, but it'll be tough to do. You would have to mask off whatever areas you don't want plated with the gold with a masking lacquer, zincate the part, nickel plate the part in an immersion system (which won't plate the masked areas), then you could gold brush plate.

Companies that sell kits that claim to be able to brush plate onto aluminum are really pushing the envelope on what's realistic. Sure, it's "technically" possible to do, but realistically, it's not an option.

Just read the disclaimer on these folks website that informs you that if you don't follow their explicit instructions to the letter, it will fail. That should start setting off the alarm bells, warning you of the high failure rate.

[motoc]

so i can't mask part,brush zincate and then nickle? sorry to be such a bother, but is all new to me. accenting my own wheels will be the only billet i ever do. i plan on sticking to the program when doing work for clients