Stripping Gold hardware? Possible?
Droid601
off over time, but I want it all gone. Any way to do this? If so... how shiny
will the end result be... and can it be chromed/polished easily?
Thanks for all comments,
-Colin
Chris Johnson
You will almost certainly have a nickel finish under the gold.
The quality of the nickel finish will be excellent, because gold plating
is VERY thin and hides NOTHING in the way of underlying flaws.
Get a tube of Flitz polish, or MAAS polish. (Same active ingredient.)
You can take the gold off with this polish on a soft cloth, or if
you have a good bench buffer with a soft, clean wheel you can strip
the gold in seconds.
Alternatively, there's probably a shop near you that caters to the customized
car market, the guys who plate ANYTHING. They can replate the gold onto your
hardware and you can specify a heavier than standard plate. I have such
a plating system myself, because I do my own gold, nickel, and copper plating,
and I can tell you that a properly applied gold plating job, done reasonably
heavy, can keep a car key looking good for six months if it's in your
pocket half the day, every day. That's pretty good durability. Such a job
would last twenty years or more on a guitar part.
One or two people who have posted to this newsgroup have had me polish
and plate a few small items. They'll tell you how nice a job can be done,
and I'll wager the job's holding up fine.
CJ
--
"Sic gorgiamus allos subjectatos nunc"