Posted: Thursday, September 8, 2005

Hawaii Plating, Keeping 50th State Shining Brightly

By Elmo Kekaa and Hui K. Aloha
Honolulu Streets Magazine

Honolulu Hawaii – Okay so you’ve got a part, maybe an old bumper, hood bracket, or a set of very badly pitted original `37 Chevy door handles you’ve been keeping in your garage for the last 30 years and you want to have them re-chromed. Maybe you’ve fabricated something and want to have that plated too.

The first question is, do you want to buy a reproduction part (if available and already chromed) or re-plate that original? If buying a repo part isn’t what you’re looking for, then you’ll want to seek out a local resource. But wait a minute, are there any chrome shops in Hawaii?

At one time there were at least five shops around Oahu. Except sometimes getting your part back from all but one was a hit `n miss deal. A lot of the times, they would even loose your priceless part and claim that you never dropped it off in the first place which is why one chrome shop used to take pictures of your stuff just before you walked away, leaving it for who knows how long.

See, some of the shops used to also say, "we’ll have it done in about two weeks" only to end up being about three months if you were lucky. And the longer time went by; there was a pretty good chance by the time you came back to pick up your part, it would’ve ended up somehow being dissolved in their solvent tank.

So what happened to all those chrome shops? Along with loosing many Hawaii customers to mainland platers, years ago the plating process was quite extensive and environmentally un-friendly especially for Hawaii’s pristine landscape. Which explains why the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) eventually shut every one of them down.

Out of all the bad publicity surrounding Hawaii chrome shops, one did emerge however. Hawaii Plating has actually been around for the last 9 to 10 years, said new owner, Kingston Liao. "I still get people, almost on a daily basis, that tell me that they never knew there was a chrome shop on the island".

Kingston also said there was a short period when there were no chrome shops at all in Hawaii. But that has changed and changed for the better.

While keeping with state EPA regulations, Hawaii Plating has made the whole chroming process even more environmentally friendly to Hawaii. In fact, as they have in the past, they handle every piece that comes in with great care and continue to spread the shinny stuff on with lots of pride.

Kingston Liao says prices have gone up a little but Hawaii Plating is still very competitive with most mainland shops. "In fact, if you add in the shipping, our prices are sometimes better than most shops. One thing for sure is that our quality is a lot better than most shops out there." He even guarantees their chrome for up to one year.

Small but notable improvements have been made to Hawaii Plating too. Since Kingston took over ownership in April of this year they now have a drop off counter. "While this may not be a BIG deal, it played a key roll in our turn around time" said Kingston. "We're even starting to plate plastic. Yup, PLASTIC!!! How's that one!"

So how does stuff get chromed anyway? According to Kingston the biggest misconception most people have about the chroming process is that it just gets dipped in a tank and POOF! It comes out shiny. Before explaining the six-step process pointed out below, Kingston also commented that most people don’t realize there is so much more prep work involved before the actual chrome plating takes place.

1: Hawaii Plating will first strip the part to be chromed down to bare metal by either sand blasting, chemical stripping, or both.

2: The part is then polished, yes, the bare metal is polished to a smooth finish. It's at this time that repairs are made to the metal such as welding pits, cracks and so forth.

3: The part is then dipped in a copper solution for about 30 minutes to an hour. Not all parts are copper plated though, some steel parts don't need the copper if it's new or in good condition. Most people think that copper plating will protect it from rust, not true. While it provides an additional barrier it will not prevent rust. Copper is to chrome plating is what glazing putty is to bodywork. It acts as a filler, or more like using bondo to smooth out a dent on a car.

4: The copper is then polished. If additional spot repairs are needed, it can be done at this time. The part would then have to go back into the copper tank for another 30 minutes.

5: After the copper is polished, it is then nickel plated for 30-45 minutes.

6: Right after the nickel plating is done, it goes into the chrome tank for 3-5 minutes.

Aside from these six steps, there are procedures between the plating process that washes the part of chemicals to prevent contamination when going from one tank to another.

Hawaii Plating must be doing something right because they’ve managed to keep our 50th State Shinning Brightly for the last ten years and now with Kingston Liao running the business, getting your part chromed will only end up looking brighter!

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