One thing I've noticed and heard said is that Italian chromed bikes (especially models like Atala, Frejus, Bianchi, and Colnago) had very thin chrome that didn't last long "back in the day". A good rechroming (at a place like 'Equality Plating' in La Mesa which Joe Bell and Brian Baylis use) would be an upgrade for those bikes.
The costs of chroming are mostly from the costs of polishing. One must polish the steel until it shines like chrome BEFORE you chrome it. If the steel is pitted badly you can polish after the copper layer to avoid perforating the steel. The copper layer is meant to fill minor pits and to smooth out irregularities. The nickel layer is what you see on a chrome bike, but the nickel is pinkish and the chrome is bluish - which cancels the pink to get white.
if you take a fully polished frame set to a chromer they should do it for maybe $150-$200. However, at $60 an hour for polishing it's easy to pay 5x more than that for 10-15 hours of polishing, especially for a bike that was originally painted and not chromed.
- Don Gillies
San Diego, CA, USA