*sigh*.... not good. bad bad bad. I need more chrome in my engine bay, and I need to polish and chrome up some of the items I have in there...

Anyone know how much it *should* cost to get something polished and/or chrome plated? Here are the things that I'm thinking of...

My Performer Intake manifold is uuuuuuuugly, needs to be polished
My new dull-gray brake booster needs to have SOMETHING done to it.
I need a new master cylinder cover
New air filter cover for my shiny Holley
Hose covers
Wire loom covers
My alternator is PEELING. I don't know if I should just get a new one, (this one is working fine) or get it cleaned/polished/plated?
The bracket is in bad shape too
My exhaust manifolds are ugly too... I need to get manifold paint or add some manifold covers...

Any other suggestions people?

Thanks

Imran - Lookin to start competing!

Chrome parts $$$$$ chrome plating $$$$$, trust me I know, my checkbook and wife are still complaining and I haven't bought that much ! Look through Eckler's or MidAmerica and you can find LOTS of chrome goodies. Look through Summit and find all the other chrome stuff.
You could always try to just restore the parts you have and get them back to original.

I've tried restoring my parts back to original as much as possible, but there's only so much you can do. And the motor being already modified by the previous owner doesn't help things either. Does anyone know if it's cheaper to just buy a new part already chromed or to get an older part plated? Any rough guidelines as to how much it'll end up costing?

I'm assuming like a Harley place would be a good start to find out this info..

Imran - 74 Convt

For chevy parts, it's always cheaper to buy new chrome, as the aftermarket is full of them. Just be careful of the real cheap stuff, it won't last. The labor to clean and polish your parts plus the plating costs are pretty high. It seems to cost about $100 and up to chrome anything. Joe

I agree $$$$$$ to have anything chrome plated. Have you ever seen ceramic powder coating? It is somewhat cheaper and looks pretty good in the polished silver, almost looks like chrome. I am considering having the hood hinges and components powder coated instead of paying over $500 for the new chrome stuff. Another thing I did with some luck was to use Mothers metal polish. Things like the tubes that go into the AC compressor shine up real nice with this stuff. I also used a polishing pad on the Dremel to polish alot of that little bitty metal stuff.

Well, I ended up buying a slew of chrome goodies from Summit, it came out a lot cheaper than I thought it would. For less than $40, the engine compartment went from a 2 on a scale of 1-10 to probably around a 7ish. Here's what I got:

Chrome Air cleaner
Chrome Master Cyl. cover
Chrome Breather
Chrome Vacuum Advance cover
blue convoluted tubing

Here's a pic :

I think you did real well for less than $40. Looks great!
~ Joe

Joe,

Thanks a lot! Yeah, it was a LOT cheaper than expected, I especially liked the blue hoses, it really brought everything together. Now that the engine is coming out to be rebuilt, I can't wait to get everything inside cleaned and painted.

On top of that, I'm getting the alternator cover and the fan-shroud cover powder coated in a metallic blue. And the intake manifold is getting blasted and coated "chrome-like"

Should be ready for carshows then! I want some "Best Engine Compartment" awards!

Imran - 74 Convt