Take a look at http://www.caswellplating.com. They sell a brush-plating kit using their "copy chrome" process. It's actually bright nickel plating, with a little cobalt thrown in to eliminate the yellowish tint that nickel normally has. In small areas, it's indistinguishable from chrome. It isn't appropriate for areas more than a couple square inches.
You have to clean and polish the underlying steel quite well, then buff the plated area after plating. I do this with a buffing wheel, but a hand-held buffer (maybe a dremel tool?) with an appropriate abrasive should work too.
For an example of what can be done, see the skewers on the hubs at
http://www.nonlintec.com/
Steve Maas Long Beach, California
Louis Schulman wrote:
> I have a mid 80's Hetchins Novus Ductor. It was the show bike used by
> U.S. representative of Hetchins at the time. In fact, this particular
> Novus Ductor was the subject of a review in Bicycling magazine. The
> bike was owned by the Hetchins shop, and the rep had to get approval
> from London to sell it to me (around 1987 or so).
>
> The finish is overall very good, and can be touched up. The problem is
> that the chrome plating on the head lugs has peeled off in places.
> Naturally, I would rather not refinish the bike to deal with this
> problem.
>
> Any suggestions? The best I came up with for a cosmetic fix was
> covering over the peeled areas with a sort of chrome decorative tape.
> Any other solutions?
>
> Thanks
>
> Louis Schulman
> Tampa, Florida (warm and rainy, turning cooler and sunny)
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> .