Plating on Upright Premier or Kenmore Vacs?

[chicagomike]

Hi, can anyone tell me if any old upright vacs came chrome or nickel plated? If so what brands/models were plated.

I tried to buff a Premier vacuum and a Kenmore Imperial vacuum today and the parts look to have possibly been chrome or nickel plated?? Thus, why the polished parts look so terrible.

Next challenge is to try to save these vacs from the recycling bin - so if you know how to fix these parts please let me know (re-plating them in not an option as I am sure each part would be in the $75-$100 range).

 

[chad]

Could try polishing it with tinfoil, ect. Other than that, powdercoat or paint. Had a chrome intake manifold years ago that I sanded the finish off, and polished the aluminum underneath. Wouldn't recommend that tactic to my worst enemy though.

 

[pr-21]

I have a Premier 21 and polished it, but it still has the kind of spots yours has, I only could buff by hand.....


pr-21
Bud

 

[3rdgenvacguy]

I have the same premier duplex as yours, no chrome, no nickel. I think both of those machines have some strange oxidation on them. Did they both come from the same place? Almost like acid or something, however it is strange how uniform the oxidation is over the entire machine, and how nice the polish is just brings out the flaws more. Powdercoating aluminum is tricky because if off gases when heated and can cause bubbles in the powdercoat. They make an additive that helps, and preheating the part also helps.

 

[chicagomike]

If it is oxidation, that should be cleanable/removable I would think??

 

[fantomfan57]

You mentioned "pitting"...

and the uniformity of the finish, could this have been a process to the chrome to allow the paint to adhere? I wondered after watching "How It's Made" where they showed the process of chroming plastic truck grills.

 

[oreck_xl]

I've seen such pitting on a more modern machine, two Kirby Generation 3's with the same problem. No matter how much you polished, the finish was pitted and after a week or two actually formed a white "mold" or some kind of residue. I'm inclined to think perhaps Kirby had a bad batch of aluminum, or used some kind of additive in the smelting process to keep the costs down....