Removing chrome plating from aluminum?

[Edward M.]

Is there any way to remove chrome plating from an aluminum piece? Something like a set of 9 fin valve covers that had been chrome plated in the past. Any way to remove the chrome and get the valve covers looking good (and original) again?

[Don Izzo]

Re: Removing chrome plating from aluminum?

Ed, Back when I had a shop building custom Harleys, we always had to have aluminum parts replated for our customers. We always had the chrome plater strip the part, reprep for new chrome and then replate. Sometimes customers wouldn't want the part replated just stripped and polished. The plater would handle that for us also. Check with a local plating shop. They can handle this for you. He will put the parts in his stripping tank and when they come out the plating will be gone! You can then focus your attention on trying to duplicate the original finish texture.
Don

[John H.]

Re: Removing chrome plating from aluminum?

If they're chrome now, chances are they were highly-polished before they were plated; chances are slim of duplicating the original satin appearance if they've been polished smooth.

[Tracy C.]

Re: Removing chrome plating from aluminum?

I'm pretty sure that plated aluminum will be alot like plated potmetal from a processing standpoint.

Copper, Nickel, Chrome...

While platers can remove the chrome by reversing the electrode polarity in a chrome plating tank, there isn't anyway to remove the nickel and copper except sanding or buffing the snot out of it until it's gone.

Because aluminum is so much softer than the nickel, I'm afraid either way, you will not want the end product on your car. It will look terrible.

I would pass on something like this. There are still good restorable examples out there.

tc