first chroming experiance. need to vent.

[icyuod2]

several months back i found an old schwinn stingray in the trash. it was in decent shape, but the forks and bars were rusted tight 90* to one another. somebody had tride to free em up and made a heck of a mess. the forks were bent, and full of dings,gouges vise grip marks. the bars and neck was also trashed.

to make a long story short i cut it up and had some guy from kijiji weld it for me (didn't have a welder at the time)
the welds were messy but solid. anyhoo, it ended up going to a local chrome plater thats surposed to be excelent at what he does. they specilize in hard chrome plating for motorcycles (copper then nickle then chrome)

i dropped the bike off and the guy was full of promises, "i'll have my bro fix the welds, we'll polish it right up, chrome's gonna have a mirror polish" and the biggy, "3 weeks tops" i dropped off the bike, he looked at it, he knew what he was in for and the quote came in at $300 (which i thought was a good deal, due to the work involved.)

2 weeks later i call up to check progress, "oh haven't even touched it. my bro's gonna come and fix the welds. 3 weeks i promise it will be finished.

2 weeks later i call to check up. no i haven't even touched it, other jobs came in. give me 3 weeks and it will be finished for sure)
2 weeks later, "no man haven't even started, give me till friday, done forsure!"
and the kicker, the price doubles!

following mon. "no man, haven't even started" give me till friday"

following tuesday (today) no man my wife booked a trip to florida, thats not gonna be done for a month.

so now the summers almost over, i went to pick up the bike.
guess they sandblasted it 2 months ago and left it sitting around to rot in the plating shop.

here's what my bike used to look like

and heres what i have now

i'm pissed!

if he told me it would take 2 months, i wouldn't have cared. however all the broken promises just rubbed me the wrong way.
all's not lost. i spent the morning polishing the frame. its gonna get a black jade green metallic flake (almost matches the original grips perfectly under high light,and changes to black) at a local bodyshop.

turn around time, 1 week.

 

[CCR]

chrome plating isnt cheap anymore thats for sure, even harley davidson is rolling out new models with less and less chrome every year.

ive been quoted in the ballpark $200 by several platers just for a 20" rim :shock: and seemed to increase by 100 or 200 more eery additional part :!:

it would be cheaper to by a mint original in my case, but i can definately see the upset in your situation with the custom frame, its not like theres another one on ebay or something.

crappy way to leave a guy hanging too, hope the new plans work out for ya with better results.

 

[icyuod2]

i just wish he'd have been straight up with me. price wasn't the issue. i wanted it chrome and probably would have paid more to have it done.

 

[Boardtrack fan]

I know what you are going through. The plater by my house used to be reasonable but, now he charges up to 3x the amount and wants like $100 extra for a rush job which still takes several weeks. I've found another plater in Mich. that I can pay for shipping in both directions and still get it done cheaper than my old guy.

 

[schwinnmesa]

That does stink. Oh by the way, I notice there's a Stingray frame in there, what did it look like before? And also, what year was it?

 

[icyuod2]

1967 stingray deluxe.
i dont have a pic with the mangled forks and bars. the forks in this pic are from the 26" supercycle in the back ground.

i rode it this way for a while.

 

[Markm]

that stinks...I hear theres a chrome powdercoat....havent seen it yet but probably cheaper....

 

[icyuod2]

well i guess this story does have a happy ending.

sherwin & williams black jade.

its alittle more glamourous than i expected, but in the correct light it matches the original sparkle geen schwinn grips perfectly.
cant believe i'm saying it but....

i sure am glad i had so much trouble at the chrome platers.

 

[Rat Rod]

It's hard to tell what color it is in the photos.

The indoor shots look close to Campus Green, but then the outside shots look gold.

Maybe it's just an optical illusion because of the flake in the paint.

 

[icyuod2]

the paint changes color depending on how the light hits it.
sometimes it looks metallic green, other times metallic gold, sometimes it looks maroon, other times it looks black.
then sometimes its all of the above.
its freckin cool!

cooler still here's what it looks like in the tin.

 

[user 135]

Beautiful paint. I like the color changing aspect.

 

[RustyKen]

A friend of mine had some Schwinn Phantom parts he took in locally to be rechromed. The chrome came out good, but they wiped out the Schwinn engraving on the hub with a grinder, and they LOST his handlebars.

 

[aka_locojoe]

So when is the bike going to be assembled? Anxious to see it.

 

[ej599]

There's an old saying, "Chrome don't get ya' home, but black will get ya' back."
and that green looks pretty mean!

 

[elvis51]

dude that freakin green/gold looks amazing!!! way better than chrome. given me inspiration to look into chameleon paint!!

Easy E

 

[chimichanga]

well i guess this story does have a happy ending.

sherwin & williams black jade.

its alittle more glamourous than i expected, but in the correct light it matches the original sparkle geen schwinn grips perfectly.
cant believe i'm saying it but....

i sure am glad i had so much trouble at the chrome platers.

Nice Job on the paint!

 

[icyuod2]

well this is definatly the harder color to capture on film, but under lower light the bike takes on alot of black.

bike should be complete and ready to ride tomorrow. i'm actually just waiting on the fenders,bb etc to come back from chrome (different place- finished with in the week)

 

[the punisher]

every cloud has a silver lining... or in this case, green, no gold, no maroon depedning on how the light hits the lining lol

Joel

 

[Korporal]

Your paint makes me smile.