MTFCA Forum

Just got these hand brake and motor crank parts back from AW Custom Plating in Eastpointe Mi. The brass clarity and finish quality is excellent. These parts had been ruined by a previous vendor to the point where another shop would not touch them. Many thanks to Steve at AW, who described what he needed to do to rework the finish, and who did a fabulous job. Cost and leadtime were very reasonable. Much Appreciation to Bill Elliot who referred me to this excellent shop.
Regards,
Scott

Very Nice Work Scott!

Scott, glad it worked out for you! AW is a class act and they do quality work!

I was told years ago it is Gold plating instead since it will not tarnish, A good friend had his headlights and side lights plated for his 09 since he did not want to deal with polishing all the time.

Hello Joe:
I looked into the cost and feasibility of gold plate and learned that gold plate assumes similar surface preparation requirements as brass, where the net cost is higher as per gold's cost, but where gold plate has it's own set of longevity issues. A misnomer is the gold plate will not tarnish...it can, and depending on the base material, severity and uniformity of the tarnish can vary. Aesthetically, gold plate displays a darker tone that is also susceptible to fading. Being a softer metal, gold has a lesser wear quality, where contact surfaces like the brake handle parts will wear more rapidly.

Supposedly, thicker caliper gold plate can be applied with less of the orange peel effect that reduces the luster of thicker brass plate. A tarnish concern is water spots, where these can be very difficult to remove from brass. Because plating is so thin, I will predict that unattended, these could result in permanent blemishes...curious whether gold plate has this same potential?

Regards,
Scott

I have used AW in Eastpoint many times.Brass and chrome. They do excellent work and really nice to work with.
Brian

Ole Doc's car has been done for 10 years now and they still look like where just done, He does not store it in the driest places either, so that sort of made a believer to me, they said for how much gold is used in plating it was not much more money, so I was told?