Steven:
As with many subjects, I believe the truth lies in between the extremes.
Regarding subjective opinions of chrome plating quality, I think we can only form our personal viewpoints based on experience.
Ignoring the plating on old cars for the moment (as I don't have a great deal of experience in that area), the unfortunate thing here is that the period of time you want to exclude is precisely the nadir of the popularity of Italian racing bikes to many of us on the CR list (yes, not to all of us by any means...), and the chrome was generally very, very poor quality on those frames. Perhaps it was 99% farmed out to sub-contractors.... Let's compare and contrast your average Paramount from the '70s or '80s to your average Guerciotti, Basso, Cinelli, Colnago, etc, etc. from the same time period. Schwinn took waaaay more care in their plating process than the Italians, the French, and others did in general, and it shows thirty years later. I've personally owned several Paramounts from that timeframe and earlier, and the quality of the chrome is generally outstanding. In stark contrast, the typical plating on many Italian stallions of the same era is thin, poorly prepped and done, and tends to peel, flake, dull, oxidize, scratch easily, and generally look like doo-doo after a few short years. The absolute worst chrome I've ever seen is on my French '70s Stella. The second worst is on my wife's '80s Guerciotti. In contrast, my fully-chromed Made-in-America 1937 Wastyn is in great shape after 65 years. So is the plating on my 1973 full-chrome Pogliaghi too, however, so perhaps Sante had tighter control of his plater's quality, or did his own polishing and prep.....
I can only go by what I and others I know have personally experienced....
You are certainly correct in echoing Brian's statement that it's mostly in the preparation - that's one of the main reasons why some vintage Italian and other lightweight bikes' chrome is often very poor IMO - bad or insufficient prep. work.
All of the '70s Japanese derailleur plating that I've seen has been excellent from what I can recall - most of them were unplated aluminum though I think (front der. cages and low-end rear ders. come to mind as chrome-plated steel items...).
I would also agree that Campagnolo was generally able to hold a high standard of quality for the plating on their chromed bits during the time period you mention - even back as far as 1960 or so. That's one of the reasons we sometimes semi-worship R/NR/SR parts - durability plus interchangeability/rebuildability, plus very high quality is a winning combination!
Cheers,
Greg Parker A2 MI USA
Steven M. wrote (in part):
<snip>
> If you take away the two decades that began with the social
> unrest of the late 60's up until the reawakening of Italian industrial
> prowess in the late 80's-early 90's, you will see that Italy actually
> historically has some of the best plating anywhere in the world. Companies
> like Campagnolo even maintained high levels of plating quality during this
> rough period of the Italian economy. Have you ever observed the 70's
> Japanese derailleur plating?
>
> In conclusion, I would like to support Brian and others who have stated that
> all depends on the quality of the polishing. For companies like Campagnolo
> and Bianchi with in-house polishing, and therefore a good understanding of
> the requirements, the chrome quality has been universally good. Furthermore,
> the $350-400 cost range for chroming of bikes as mentioned so far are
> unheard of in Italy.
>
> Steven Maasland
> Moorestown, NJ