DIY Gold Hardware (electroplating?)

I've done zinc, copper, nickel, bronze, and cadmium plating off & on for years. to gold though. the price of the materials is pretty high if you mean real gold. like wowzer high. there are some brass alloys that look close.

you should put gold over the top of nickel or maybe copper. I don't think it can go on top of chrome, pretty much nothing does well over chrome. any chrome needs to be removed by electrostripping in either and acid or caustic electrolyte. you could start with nickel hardware though.

there is brush plating and tank plating. Caswell is the most reliable supplier for the hobbyist. there may be others but not many left doing this type thing

https://caswellplating.com/

 

Go with gold nail polish... It will last about as long as most plating, but If you tire of it faster than expected... Acetone will reverse it quickly.

 

If the professionals can never get it right (and they can't, that tacky -ish starts to tarnish and flake off as soon as you look at it), what makes you think you can?

 

Electroplating is a very dirty process, and there are plenty of bad/poisonous chemicals involved. You'll also generate toxic waste.

Consider all of that too.

 

I bought one of the Caswell kits to gold plate a few extra long neck screw heads. It works well but the gold rubs off fairly easily. Perhaps the SS screws were not the best material to plate.

 

It will be cheaper to buy gold replacement hardware unless it is something you just want to try as a hobby.

Mobile brush plating was a thing back in the '80's. The mobile services would offer "Gold Packages" through the car dealerships and electroplate medallions like wheel center caps, body badging and other parts on-site without even removing them from the car. The results were gold plated parts that lasted a few years before beginning to degrade from car washes and the weather.

Amazon sells home plating systems but most are $500 on up. There is a low cost hobby kit that Amazon sells from Becker Industries for $59 that will do either immersion or brush plating (for parts that can't be removed or are impractical to immerse due to size).

In order to gold plate chrome parts, you have apply a chrome stripper first. Also, gold plate does not bond with stainless, so you have to plate with an intermediate first. For example, automotive chrome plating over steel is typically a copper plate base coat, followed by nickel intermediate coat, followed by chrome coat. Becker sells what they call Nickel Activator which coats the stripped chrome or stainless part so it will accept and bond the gold plating. The solutions are pricey but you can plate in nickel, gold, rose gold, nickel, copper, silver and black chrome with their premixed solutions.

 

I looked into this a while back as I was looking for a gold fender jazzmaster trem (they are impossible to find,actual fender ones) And figured I could plate my own

I made the decision that it was more trouble than it was worth

If you actually do it I hope you check back and tell us how it went