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Chevrolet Lumina in GOLD
We often are asked about Gold Plating USED vehicles.
We now have an example of a 1992 Chevrolet Lumina 4
door sedan for Gold Plating.
The vehicle is a dark blue and it shows off the gold
well if you are standing there looking at it. The process is a bit harder to show using a
digital camera, but it will give you a working idea of the steps to do in Gold Plating.
For the sake of minimal reflections which would make
it harder for you to see the digital images, we did this without the white colored plastic
to collect the runoff.
There are 6 images on this page so it may take a
little time for it to load.
The reason to show this particular vehicle is
simple. First, it was readily available. Second, and more important, it is typical of a
USED Vehicle that you may wind up Gold Plating.
You may work on newer vehicles and you may work on
older vehicles. The overall process is still the same.
On used vehicles, the need to clean the surface of
the script and or emblem is quite important. Fortunately, this was a fairly clean vehicle
to start with. We still used a citrus based water soluble cleaner to remove any unforeseen
coatings on the 3 scripts.
The 1992 Chevrolet Lumina has 3 scripts that say
LUMINA. On this vehicle, the front emblem was already gone, presumably removed during a
trip to a Car Wash with Brushes.
It will be extremely easy for the owner of this
vehicle to have that front emblem Gold Plated, depending on what comes back from the
Chevrolet Dealer.
I expect some people will wonder about the stainless
steel cart in the images. It is a cart we had. I expect it is initially from some sort of
Hospital Supply operation. When I got it, the casters and caster swivels needed some WD-40
and the whole thing needed a good cleaning. I figured that it was worth the $5.00 I paid
for it.
I can, and do, use the stainless steel cart for
other items in our business. We specifically do not recommend you consider a stainless
steel cart since it could potentially damage a vehicle it rolls into a vehicle. With the
rocky and concrete entrance to our Warehouse, the idea of the cart rolling anywhere was
not a concern.
If you want a cart type operation, we suggest you
consider the purchase of a Rubbermaid plastic service cart. You can find them in a Office
MAX or OFFICE DEPOT type store. We shop a lot at a local STAPLES office supply store too,
I know they have them as well. The prices are basically very similar so the closest one to
you is probably the pace to go. This is ideal if you are working in a shop and do not go
mobile.
If you are, or want to be, a mobile type Gold
Plating operation, there is the flat type of Rubbermaid dock cart with a folding handle.
It is a fairly new item. The handle folds flat as well as giving you a easy way to hold
onto the flat type dock cart as you move about a shop or in a dealership lot. You can find
that flat type dock cart in a Office MAX or OFFICE DEPOT type store. We shop a lot at a
local STAPLES office supply too. I am sure they have them, or can order them, as well.
The benefit of folding flat is that it is a lot
easier to carry a flat dock cart in your vehicle.
It is a lot like the folding wood chair just out of
view in the following images. The folding wood chair was very affordable and easy to
transport.
If you find that you are working in a dealership lot
and move from spot to spot, you can use a gallon plastic jug filled about 1/2 full of
sand. Tie a short rope the neck handle and to the cart. Set the half filled gallon
container on the ground and the cart will not roll away from you. The half filled gallon
container is easy to pick up and to store in your vehicle. If you get one of the flat type
RUBBERMAID Carts, I am sure you can drill a hole in the dock cart base so you can tie a
rope to it.
I did this work just outside our Commercial /
Industrial facility. The owner of the vehicle told me that I should not expect to collect
$200 for this particular Gold Plating DEMO job. I guess that means if you come to Reading,
I can show this DEMO job to you at no extra cost...
I am not altogether sure that means if a consumer is
watching you and sees how easy it is to do that they will not want to pay you $200 for the
job.
However, this is 24 K Gold Jewelry for a vehicle and
24 K gold is EXPENSIVE. Most people know that and are not tuned into the actual costs of
the Gold Plating.
The mobile gold plating process is what is
commonly called a 3 step plating process. This means strip the chrome, activate the
nickel and deposit / molecularly bond the 24 K gold to the exposed and activated nickel.
NOTE: In this 3 step process, there are several
added steps, such as cleaning the piece you are going to plate, as well as rinsing and
putting on a level of protective wax. What we are referring to is the 3 step plating
process.
These are the same basic 3 step plating process
used in TANKS PLATING. As you will see, the main difference is that in mobile brush
plating you do the work with the scripts right on the vehicle.
STRIPPING THE CHROME
You can see the red colored banana clip in the right
hand and the electrode with the black colored electrode holder in the left hand. Here, the
synthetic anode wrap is wet with chrome stripping chemical, although you can not see the
clear colored chemical in this image. This process strips off the chrome quickly.
Since the Power Supply automatically adjusts for the amperage you need in this
step, you will not have a problem of over stripping the chrome.
ACTIVATING THE NICKEL
You can see the black colored banana clip in the
right hand and the electrode with the red colored electrode holder in the left hand. Here,
the synthetic anode wrap is wet with nickel activating chemical, although you can not see
the clear colored chemical in this image. This process activates the nickel quickly.
Since the Power Supply automatically adjusts for the amperage you need in this
step, you will not have a problem of over activating the nickel.
DEPOSITING & BONDING
THE 24 K GOLD
You can see the black colored banana clip in the
right hand and the electrode with the yellow colored electrode holder in the left hand.
Here, the synthetic anode wrap is wet with chrome stripping chemical. The purple color is
the actual gold plating solution. This process deposits and molecularly bonds 24 K
gold to the exposed and activated nickel. Each time you pass the synthetic
electrode cover with the slightly gelled gold plating solution on the script,
the gold is built up a little more, giving you the control over the thickness of
the gold you apply.
Since the Power Supply automatically
adjusts for the amperage you need in this step, you will have a result with a
brilliant and durable 24 K gold finish.
If you look close, you can see the part of the
Lumina script to the left of the purple part is already Gold Plated. It is actually very
hard to see if you are looking at a monitor set to a resolution higher than 640 by 480.
The whole gold plating process takes just a few
minutes per script.
It is simple and quick to do gold plating.
WAXING THE GOLD PLATING
Here you can see the WAX residue by the letter N and
in and about the letter A. This is easily removed by a soft bristled tooth brush. We
include a soft tooth brush in every Gold Plating System we sell. The WAX provides a
protective coating that does not dry out and one your customer can easily rewax every 6
months. If you note all of the water beading about the script, you can tell rest of this
vehicle was not waxed very recently.
WORN LUMINA SCRIPTS
In this picture you will see how repeated passes
through brush type car washes over the years has worn down the leading edge of the Lumina
Script. This image Is of the passengers side of the vehicle. You will see less water
beading about the script here because a smaller area was waxed.
LUMINA CLOSE UP
Not only can you see a little WAX residue that is
easy to remove with the soft tooth brush we include with every Gold Plating system, you
get to see how the leading edge of the Lumina script A on the passengers side of the
vehicle is worn after repeated brush type car washes.
In an instance like this, you can see the results of
the gold plating. The gold plating did a good job of turning the chrome script to a bright
24 K gold.
There is limited evidence of water beading about the
script, although it is still visible.
The question to address is if this gold edge showing
is acceptable to the buyer. It is the buyer who must make a decision.
It was easy to see the worn part before we started.
You would see the worn part as well. As such, you could ask your customer how they wanted
you to go forward on this.
The only way to get ideal results is to order new
Lumina Scripts from a Chevrolet Dealer. This decision falls to the owner of the vehicle.
Some will want to do that, some will not care as much. Either way, you can gold
plate what they want and make money in the process.
To go back to the 25 AMP Gold Plating
System, CLICK HERE.
To go back to the 35 AMP Gold Plating
System, CLICK HERE.
To go back to the EQUIPMENT ORDER FORM, CLICK HERE.
To go to our GOLD PLATING INFORMATION PAGE,
CLICK HERE.
To go to our GOLD PLATING INFORMATION PAGE,
CLICK HERE.
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