Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

I've used Gateway Plating in St. Louis for a number of jobs. Good work, good prices. Example, 53 Plymouth bumpers, $300 each. Go rusty and bent, come back shiny and straight. Not quite concorse quality, you can see some slight sanding marks, barely, if you look close, but certainly good enough for anything but the top show cars. They'll do it concorse quality, but I have no idea the cost. Took my t-Bucket front axle, rusty and some pits, came back looking really nice, about $300. They've done several sets of headlight buckets in polished nickel, ready for special coating from Uvira, about $80 a pair. They were good enough to use as is, but the Uvira treatment keeps it that way permenantly. My 48 Coupe bumpers will go to Gateway soon.

There is also a shop in Cuba, Mo., Highline Plating, that does good work. I've not used them but have seen their results and it was quite good and reasonable prices.

The problem comes in on pot metal parts that are pitted. I've tried several places, some cheap, some not cheap and they all just buff away the pits, then plate. They don't resemble the part you started with. It takes a special place to do those and I haven't found it yet. Gateway knows they can't do a good job so won't try.

Their in lies the problem with zinc pot metal. you can not just buff away the pits. Each pit must be painstakingly ground out by hand and thoroughly cleaned before using filler rod to resurface the piece. A taillight for example I can have two to three hours just in pit grinding and filling, longer if chips and cracks need repaired. Unfortunately it is not a simple or easy task which is why pot repair with re-choming runs a tad on the expensive side. I got to give it up to studebaker International, in reproducing readily available bright work. I can buy New cheaper then I can repair for customers. I wish we could do something similar with Pack organization.

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I posted most of my chrome bills for my '40 160. But you can get a level on what various parts could cost. I think the bumpers were $400 each.