I want to plate my rear bumper in either Nickel or a black chrome plus other misc, parts. maybe the front bumper also.
I've heard horror stories of bad plating out there.

Well you're going from one extreme to the other. Nickel is relatively cheap as they generally won't do any copper plating or polishing prior to plating so you'll end up with something shiny but without much of a finish and it won't hang in very long (depending on what its subjected to). Nickel is generally a cheap header finish.

Then there's black chrome - which is usually about 1-1/2 times the cost of regular chrome.

Do some price shopping before you decide on the finish or you may be in for a BIG disappointment when you find out what you'd like is not in your budget.

And as far as "bad plating" goes, people seldom mention the cost when they complain about the results but in most cases they probably got what they paid for.

I believed that Nickel usually came after the copper first plating. Am I correct?
I know that black chrome is not done so much anymore and that you will get what you paid for, but I am aware of possible cost out there. I know of some people that have paid a high price and still received junk.

Lee, I can't comment on nickel or black plating but I've used Tricity Plating for my original Coronet bumpers. They look really nice but took two try's. In the past on a GTX I had I used a guy named Bob out of Menden NJ and they came out perfect. The nice thing about Tricity is they usually hit Carlise shows so you can buy outright or pick up/dropoff yours. Ron

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I believed that Nickel usually came after the copper first plating. Am I correct?

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In quality chroming processes, yes. On run-of-the-mill bumper re-chroming jobs and econo jobs the copper is usually skipped to cut costs.

On a "nickel" job you're likely to get the part chemically stripped and nickel plated ONLY unless you specify the copper plating. In which case the price will skyrocket because of the additional material and becuase the copper will then be buffed (otherwise there's just no point). So if you go the copper/nickel route then I can't see why you'd want to skip the final chrome stage.

Seems to me paint would be a much better alternative to either nickel or nickel/copper if you're not going to go with the final chrome step.

It's kind of like building a complete house but not bothering to shingle the roof !!!

It's strictly for esthetic reasons.
My car as you can see on my post pic is all Black with no trim at all. All name plates are gone except for the rear trunk DODGE letters. Black steel wheels, black interior, black heart.

The black chrome would contrast just enough to not be to flashy as with chrome.
On the other hand, nickel has a flat semi Titanium look to it that looks better than chrome to me.

You can call it the Black out of 65'. Funny enough, I remember that first black out in 1965 here in New York.