Chrome finish peeling off alloy Electra rack

[outback97]

Hey guys, I have a question about chrome on an aluminum rack. I got an Electra Gigi for my wife and it came with a chrome plated rear rack. The chrome is starting to peel on the top of the rack where it's been abraded. I took the rack off and sure enough it's not steel but aluminum.

What do you guys suggest doing? Try to strip the chrome off the rack and spray it with chrome spray paint and a clear coat, strip and paint to match the body of the bike, or something else? Thanks.

 

[Dorian]

Must have had flash chrome on it. some areas may peel while other areas may stay on well. Your going to have a hard time taking all the chrome off without taking it to a plating shop and having them do it in their tanks. Take all the peeling chrome off and get it powder coated silver maybe. Or spray it yourself with a spray bomb to save some money.

 

[outback97]

I'm looking into chemical methods of removing the chrome, it would be a pain to get it off of there mechanically!

I also emailed Electra to see what they have to say about the finish peeling off their rack, will update this if I hear from them. Thanks for your reply. Anyone more suggestions?

 

[gcrank1]

It is put on with an electroplating method, they 'reverse it to take it off. If you have a local plater see what 'the guy in back' wants for a deplate. Since there is no polishing or metals added it should be pretty cheap. Trying to get it off by 'mechanical' methods is way too much and you cant get it all.
Bare alum. spiffed now and then with a fine polishing compound looks good, and some wax helps keep it.

 

[deorman]

If you get the old finish off + 1 on just polish and buff-wax.

 

[outback97]

Update:

I have only found 3 local places that do plating. The one of these three that bothered to respond to my email said they don't do alloy, if it was steel they'd charge $100 to re-chrome it. And that's the only place that does de-plating according to the people I talked to.

So far no response from Electra either.

EDIT: Meant to say "if it was steel" not "if it was chrome"

 

[gcrank1]

A chrome shop that doesnt do 'alloy' ?; not a 'full service shop'.......and they dont dechrome???
I assume you meant 'if it was steel' it would cost $100, BUT, they would have to dechrome it to get to the nickel coat (triple chrome is copper/nickel/chrome; chrome is transparent, the nickel gives the color); you dont just rechrome over a flaking chrome job (unless you are a hack). So they would get to 'recover' the chrome in the deplate, and to go all the way to the alum. they would recover the nickel and copper, no cost to them, all for hooking up a couple of electrodes and tanking it with other stuff in the works. Sometimes you have to wait until they have a full tank of stuff to do, its just smarter to run power on a full tank of goods.
Sounds to me like they just dont want to work with you because you dont want to pay the big bucks for a rechrome. Too bad that a business does that to somebody who comes in with a 'little job'. If they treated you good, you might come back with some chrome work and bring your friends. WOW, more business, what a novel idea.........

 

[outback97]

...
Sounds to me like they just dont want to work with you because you dont want to pay the big bucks for a rechrome ...

That's it, I think they just don't want to be bothered because I don't have a bumper from a show car or something.

At the company I work for, when the phone rings or an email comes in we don't know if it's going to be for a sale of $5 or $5000. But we make sure to take care of all of those customers. We have had small sales that turn into much larger and repeat business on more than one occasion.

Anyway, thanks for the info, you guys with local helpful shops are lucky, sounds like it's hit or miss.

 

[outback97]

Update: Last night I did get an email from Electra. They have advised me to bring the rack into a dealer to have them submit a warranty claim. Hope it works out, I'll keep this thread updated.

 

[outback97]

Update: Thanks to Electra and my local Sport Chalet bike department I now have a shiny new chromed steel rack. It took a while for the email response, but after that they moved quickly and took good care of me.

The steel rack is noticeably heavier but also looks a lot nicer than the alloy one ever did.