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I'm thinking of buying a chroming kit and rechroming all the shiny bits myself. I'm wondering what metal the various bits are made of.

I assume the bumpers are steel and the handles are pot metal. How about the headlight/taillight trim? Interior chrome? The chrome strips that run the length of the car?? Aluminum or pot metal?

What year is your car? headlight buckets in 55-56 are die-cast potmetal. 51-53 are stainless. Some strips are stainless, others potmetal. If you are going to do your own chrome-plating you need to be able to determine what you are dealing with.
I admire your enthusiasm, but question your judgement.

It's a 1950 Standard 8. I know I'm probably jumping off the deep end on this one but chroming costs an arm and a leg and I spent a small fortune on chroming for the last car I restored. I'm checking out a Copy Chrome kit from caswellplating.com and it seems feasible. I just need to know what sort of metals I'll be working on.

Let us know how you come out on this venture. I'd be interested in this approach if it proves to be economically viable.

Does this chroming kit do triple plating? If it doesn't it's not worth it IMHO, as it won't last very long.

I purchased a plating kit several years ago, but darned if I've ever found time to try it out.

In the meantime, however, I have done a lot of studying with DIY books from a couple of major hobby suppliers. Those books are well worth the investment even BEFORE you lay down any money for a plating kit.

Plating is a very interesting field, but things can get very complicated and very quickly. There are also some forums that cater specifically to craft, but the posts I've seen were very in-depth - almost at an engineer's level.

Unfortunately, I know of no reference that will tell you what base metals you can expect to find on any specific car. I'd venture a guess that you'll mainly be dealing with plain steel, stainless steel, or "pot-metal" on a '50 Packard, but don't know of any pure aluminum trim parts on that car. Some clubs have some vague judging standards like "stainless steel parts should not be plated", but there are actually some stainless steel trim parts that DO have a thin coat of chrome-plating.

Steel base metal doesn't look to be much of a problem, but replating pot-metal, poses some serious challenges - even beyond dealing with the obvious, inevitable pits. While the primary component of pot-metal used in die-cast parts is zinc, the alloy may contain some lead, aluminum, copper, or other metals, but there is no single, universal blend - not even in automtive circles. Pot-metals contain some impurities that make it difficult to plate, and the zinc component makes for a porous alloy that tends to retain chemcials used to clean/strip. Now, there are some shortcuts for "restoring" pot-metal trim, which even some plating businesses use, that help make for a good-looking final result, but I have my doubts as to the long-term durability.

Based on what I've read, if I ever plug in the outfit that I have, I will practice with some used, yet non-essential, parts first.

Meanwhile, perhaps other Packard owners who have tried this will chime with their experience.

Here is a link to a forum that I frequent where agent did some Nova bumpers with spray chrome.

http://spi.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=1028&highlight=chrome&mforum=spi

Plating some bad parts to pass as acceptable with other aged chrome may be OK but I don't know about doing the whole car.

The bumpers are steel- the grill is steel. Everything on the sides is stainless. Door, trunk handles potmetal, windscreen frame also. The bird or other hood ornament is potmetal. Hubcaps and wheel trim rings are steel.

51-54 Grilles are Pot-Metal.

Bumpers are steel

Side Trim and Window trim Stainless

53-54 Headlight Doors are Pot-Metal

Hood Ornaments are Pot-Metal

Taillight Bodies are Pot-Metal

Basically if it's chrome plated and not a bumper (or bumperette/guard), it's pot-metal on the 51-54 bodies.

Thanks for the info so far. I'm getting some conflicting info though so lemme summarize what's been said. Once again, my car is a 1950 Standard 8:

bumper, grille, hubcaps: steel
side trim, window trim: stainless
handles, hood ornament, windshield frame: potmetal

How about the headlight/taillight bezels??

I'm trying to decide on how much of the chroming process I'm willing to undertake myself and how much of it to farm out. In the last car I did, I farmed out the entire thing and it cost me a small fortune. The Packard has a lot more chroming needed and having it rechromed will get really expensive.

The process I'm looking at is Copy Chrome and it's being pushed by caswellplating.com. It's not a true chroming process but it's supposed to look just like chrome without the huge power needs and the dangerous chemicals. I've seen some finished products and it looks fine.

The process for both pot metal and steel is similar. Plate the metal first with copper. Repair, polish and degrease. Plate with Copy Chrome. Their process for stainless is different: Stainless Steel Activator, repair & polish, Nickel Plate.