To chrome or not to chrome...

hi,
I've just aquired a rather sad-looking 65' Supra and am trying to decide whether to get it re-chromed or in the words of Sir Paul McCartney, just 'let it be'. I don't profess to know much about the chroming process other than it's expensive but not sure whther it might adversely affect the drum in some way. Interested to hear other's experiences.

Certainly won't affect it adversely. All you are doing is restoring the original coating anyway. This one will come down to cost and whether or not that cost is worth it to you.

rmandelbaum, one of the members here had his rechromed and has been very happy with the results. If he doesn't chime in on this thread, perhaps PM him (his name is Robert) and he'll let you know the process.

Another drummer whose kit I use in our practice space also had bad chipping on his Supra. he had it gently sandblasted, and re-painted with a black matte coating. Looks very nice, cost about $100, but the coating dried the sound out a bit, made it a little more 'Acro' than Supra.

at one time many years ago I worked in a bumper re-manufacturing company. The process involves removing existing coatings, snading or polishing, and re chroming. If it were me I would ask for minimal sanding/polishing since that process removes material. If done right I doubt there would be much loss of sound qualities unless they remove too much material. Look for a place that does high quality chrome work on things like classic cars.

There's also a trend to have the drum stripped,and then fine polished.Polished aluminum looks like chrome it so shiney,and it's low maintainence,especially if it's clear coated.

A much cheaper alternative to chrome plating,which has become more expensive because of heavy metal disposal and management.

Steve B

I agree with tamadrm - aluminum can be polished to almost a mirror shine. It is done in steps (using finer and finer media each time) and can be somewhat labor intensive, but IMO it would be worth it. You would be surprised to see how good it comes out. I've never done a snare shell, but I have done the wheels of my car. Just another option...

there's a guy on ebay who takes pitted and flaking supras and acros and powder coats them, so that's a idea though still costly for one piece.

atleast he's not piecing them out.

Thanks a lot for all the great input. For the moment I have stripped the shell and had a go at cleaning and polisihng it in its current state to see how it looks - which is about 200% than it did before. I've also bought new snares and heads and will put it back together to see how it plays. I may just leave it as-is and let it wear its history on its sleeve. One thing I noticed is that at some time it must have been dropped on it's base ball bat muffler control causing a slight indentation in the shell. This is proving surprisingly resilliant to push out with a G-clamp (I'd rather try to avoid beating it with a hammer) making me appreciate how solid the shells are inspite of their comparatively light weight.

tamadrm said:

There's also a trend to have the drum stripped,and then fine polished.Polished aluminum looks like chrome it so shiney,and it's low maintainence,especially if it's clear coated.

A much cheaper alternative to chrome plating,which has become more expensive because of heavy metal disposal and management.

Steve B

Click to expand...

+1. This, to me, is by far the best way to go. When done right, they shine just as well as chrome. Besides, there's always the risk that it may pit-up again.

Now, I've been thinking of rechroming my '59/'60 Ludwig "Super", but that's a different animal all together. ;-)