Idea For Plating Parts

[Saito]

I've been fooling around with a little home electroplating of late. As always, I try to apply my little experiments to RC. Plated Hot Shot/Fox wheels came to mind. I know originally these items were vacuum plated. I've come across methods (even kits) that allow someone to plate non-metallic surfaces (i.e. our plastic wheels) by using conductive paint as a base layer for the plating to attach to. Granted, the plating's holding strength is basically limited to how well the paint bonds to the wheel. Has anyone tried something like this or had any good/bad results? I know the traditional vacuum plated Tamiya used back in the day was not durable at all. Have I stumbled onto a solution to our plating problems or even just a usable item for shelf queens or is this old news?

[terry.sc]

Before you go too far you might want to take a look at Loadeds traderoom

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/trades_model.asp...705&id=4964

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/trades_model.asp...579&id=4964

[casethejoint]

Not sure if this helps, but appears that the auto industry do this chemically rather than using paint (can't vouch for the authority of this page though):-

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/eng99/eng99348.htm

[Live Steam Mad]

I've been fooling around with a little home electroplating of late. As always, I try to apply my little experiments to RC. Plated Hot Shot/Fox wheels came to mind. I know originally these items were vacuum plated. I've come across methods (even kits) that allow someone to plate non-metallic surfaces (i.e. our plastic wheels) by using conductive paint as a base layer for the plating to attach to. Granted, the plating's holding strength is basically limited to how well the paint bonds to the wheel. Has anyone tried something like this or had any good/bad results? I know the traditional vacuum plated Tamiya used back in the day was not durable at all. Have I stumbled onto a solution to our plating problems or even just a usable item for shelf queens or is this old news?

Where did you read that the HotShot / Fox wheels were plated using vacuum deposition ? Would love to see where you read that?

I'd like to see the results of any experiments that you do on gold plating e.g. Fox wheels. Pictures of even partial successes would be more than welcome.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Saito]

I thought I read about Tamiya vacuum plating their parts on this website somewhere. I started plated metal objects (like copper plating dimes and quarters e.g. US currency). My wife sells her artwork at a store in town and I tagged along one day. While I was there, I saw someone had made jewelry out of non-metallic objects, yet they were actually copper-plated. This got me thinking about applying this to RC and its many plastic parts. The process is a bit more involved than copper plating a quarter but its possible. The really expensive part of the experiment is the actual conductive paint. If I take the plunge, the items I plate will actually be nickel plated (which can be polished to a chrome-like appearance) and then perhaps shot with clear yellow for the gold effect. Actual chrome plating is not only finicky, but very dangerous stuff to be fiddling about with.