As a very inept mechanic who has returned to Scott ownership after a 35 year break, this is the first of a number of dumb questions as I try to re-assemble my ’59 model.
At the Stanford gathering there were a number of machines with very nice new chromed radiators. I am wondering if any of these were from Jon Hodges and had been chromed by their owners (Jon has said in an email to me in April that he does not get them chromed and would be interested in finding out about it – copy below).
My concern is that simply asking a chroming specialist to do a radiator will result in it being dipped into a bath of acid to clean it before starting, thereby removing some base metal from the 6 thou’ tubes that will then start to leak!!! I am very sensitive to this as the main running cost with my last Scott (also a ’59 model – the newest one I could afford at the time) was buying cans of ‘radweld’!!!!!
If anybody has experience of chroming one of these radiators and can advise how to go about it, I would appreciate it. Mine is still in its unopened box so no greasy findermarks yet.
Note: I also saw a number of what I assumed were Jon’s radiators fitted as supplied and thought the yellowish sheen also looked good, so chroming is only a ‘nice to have’ and not worth it if there is any risk of causing damage/leakage.
Best regards,
Colin
Copy of email from Jon Hodges 28/4/04
“The material used is what is known as Nickel Silver or German Silver. It
is in fact a Brass but with about a 10% nickel content added. There
shouldn’t be a problem plating it as long as the platers are made aware
that it is a soft soldered construction. If you could also get them to
prevent any of the chemicals involved getting inside the radiator this may
stop any problems of corrosion in the future as the tubes making up the
core are only 0.006″ (0.15mm) thick. I would be interested to know how you get on as I would like to offer the service but have been put off with Jack Butterworth’s experiences.
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