Jennings pitted chrome surface

[thepennyarcade]

I just acquired a barn find of a Jennings Standard 25ct machine.
The wood has been painted black and the coin slides & fourth click were frozen.
I wired wheeled the slides and used WD 40 on the 4th click
The mech seems to work fine now.
However the Chrome on the top and front castings is a 5 out of 10.
In the old days when my 68 Chevy had rust on its chrome bumpers, I would take a SOS pad and clean the rust off and then wax the bumper.
Does anyone have a better way to clean up the pitted chrome?
Thanks
John

[radiorich123]

HI

If the chrome has rust and pitts best to replate it. You can also wire wheel it and paint it silver. Good luck.
Rich

[SLOT DYNASTY]

The biggest problem that has always plagued the Jennings chrome-front machines, is when they are old & pitted, and in need of replating,
you need to find a plating shop that knows how to do it correctly. These factory castings, were not baby-ass smooth to begin with, and were
full of gas-holes. The factory used the correct process to plate them at the time, but now-a-days, the plating shops that do know how to do
it right, will charge you extra for the process. Once the castings are stripped, and sanded as smooth as possible, they have to flow copper on
them until the gas holes are filled, as well as deep sanding marks they may have put in, before putting on the final chrome plate. I have seen
many restored Jennings machines, that look like Crap, just because of a poor plating job. So, do your research before diving into a project.

[terick2104]

I agree with Slotdynasty, to get a good plating job the castings have to be copper plated, then buffed, then copper plated again then buffed etc. and this process has to be done as many times as it takes to fill the pits in the castings. Any plating shop can do it, the question is how much money do you want to spend? A better and cheaper way to redo Jennings Standard Chief castings is have the plater strip the chrome off and polish the aluminum castings.

[doc]

I recently had the top casting on my Jennings slot re-plated. The bottom casting looked pretty good, so I thought it was worth it to do one casting. It's not cheap.

Some folks wire brush the castings and then paint them. Some of those look good. There is a very nasty looking one of those painted red in ebay auction 251616586710.

Steven

[terick2104]

Looks like they did a nice job of plating. Can I ask what it cost?

[kentdun]

I've used the following for surface rust. It doesn't restore the chrome, but takes off the rust with hurting the chrome. I learned it from a friend uses it on rusted gun barrels.

Take an all copper penny. I believe they switched to zinc sometime in the 80's.

Take some light weight oil (like sewing machine oil) gently rub the penny and oil over the rusted area. I have always kept he penny flat against the surface.
The rust comes off. Wipe with a dry rag. I can't explain why. Any chemists out there?

To be safe I always start in an are that doesn't show.

[doc]

Looks like they did a nice job of plating. Can I ask what it cost?

Hi Terick,

I used Spacecoast Plating (http://www.spacecoast-plating.com/). I spent $275 in total. That's their $225 estimate, landfill charge, and postage both ways. I'll score it a 9-9.5 out of 10.

Other folks wanted to charge $100-$200 more.

Steven

[flipper77]

Painting can be an acceptable option and can look good. I picked up a quarter light up in Alabama. The extreme heat and humidity did a job on the outside surface. Chrome was peeling pretty much all over. Decided to start with a Hammer paint coat after wire brushing. Could always take the path Terick recommends later. But satisfied with hammer look - picture doesn't show the hammer result fully but here is before and after.

Flip