My Redcay was made from this same first batch of prototype lugs. I believe I ordered the bike in 1979 and got it in '81. As I recollect Jim was uninterested in makeing any more frames from the 300 series alloy lugs.
Pictures to follow.
As to chroming, I did a six month rotation working on gun barrels. The plating requirements for the 30mm gun barrels on the A-10 have to be the most demanding of any requirement. Arcane stuff to figure out the problems. A whisker or irregularity of certain shapes can plate out to 10X its original diameter because of the strong effect on the electric field.
Joe
snip
> As to the stainless lugs etc go, I was the first person that I know of
>that used them in this country. In 1979, we began asking Henry James to cast
>us up some from the same molds he used for the regular lugs. When they were
>cast in 300 series from the same molds, the shrinkage factor is drastically
>different due to the same crystalline issues that help make the 300 series so
>difficult to work with. We had to work with the shrunken lugs with several
>handmade tools that made the frames take a lot longer on top of the normal
>stubborness of the stainless. I was occasionally welding up stainless tubing
>to get to the final lug but if you want to do something really time
>consuming, that no one will really be able to appreciate, try to make blank
>lugs from stainless steel tubing. I also made my own stainless dropouts
>before anyone had a cast or laser cut version. I had them plasma cut from
>sheet and then I machined the sides to give raised faces etc. Actually not
>bad for work excesses. In about 1981 we got our first stainless lugs from
>Henry James and for about 10 years enjoyed an exclusive from him (partly
>because Hank did not feel they were a finished product with the shrinkage
>issue). snip