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Ask the prospective shops if they use "Hexavalent" or "Trivalent" plating. The chemistry is different. Hex is mor hazardous and expensive, and surprise--Better. Trivalent is becoming more and more common, and while it can be done well, its not quite as good.

When you find a shop that still does Hex, its a pretty good indicator that they perform good work and have pride in their work. Think of Tri as cutting a corner, if they cut that corner, what OTHER corners do they cut???



Trivalent usage has nothing to do with cutting corners, where did you come up with that? Nor are they cheaper, did you make that up also? Trivalents are used to be ROHS compliant and to meet EPA and European standards, which since you don't know means they cost MORE money to buy and use. Hexvalent chromates and chromes are more carcinogenic and that is why most aren't used and why most aren't allowed to be used on automotive parts or anything that is sent to European nations. The goal they have is for anything that ends up in a land fill to be environmentally friendly or recyclable.

Now since trivalents do not have the same heavy chromes in them as the hexvalents but have to meet or exceed the haxvalent standards do you think they are cheaper or the shops using them are Cutting Corners? I think not.

If the parts rusted then they probably didn't get enough chrome over the nickel. Nickel offers little or almost no protection, nickel is porous and the chrome seals it. That is why the back sides always seem to rust, they get almost no chrome just nickel. If you bumper has a goldish color you are seeing the nickel.

By the way I know very high end chrome shops that use Trivalent chromes and Non-cyanide coppers and their work is flawless