Chrome! (July 2017)

In early 2016, while the RO was still in it's protective "shipping carton", I started to create a mental list regarding everything I needed to do in order to bring it back to life. One of the major cosmetic issues is the chrome- it's over 60 years old, pitted, stained (yes, stained!), and just plain nasty looking. So, in July of 2016 I attended the MSRA Back To The 50's event at the Minnesota State Fair  (https://msrabacktothe50s.com/), not just to see all of the street rods and what-not, but more importantly to start talking with chroming vendors.

I don't recall how many vendors I spoke with that day in 2016, but sadly within a few weeks I promptly lost all of the business cards I had picked-up!

So, in 2017 my father and I did this again.......except this time I didn't mess-up!

It soon became clear that the best chroming vendor around the Twin Cities area is JR Custom Plating  (http://www.jrcustomplating.com/), and both my father and I were impressed not only with their professionalism and attitude, but also with their reputation within the Street Rod community (yes, we talked to a lot of people about where they had their chrome plating done).

So, done deal!

Back home I began sorting parts, and taking pictures of each. I also produced a spreadsheet calling-out each item, complete with Rock-Ola part number, and where it could be found in the Service Manual. My plan was to give this spreadsheet to JR's, but as it turned-out their inventory tracking was much better than I had anticipated, so it was a moot issue.

Here's an overall picture of most of the pieces and parts I sent out for chroming:

I also asked them look at the perforated grill assembly:

The two locks:

And while we're at it, the tonearm as well:

The Gripper Arm and Inner Gripper Casting were in really good condition (although a little dirty here):

But I dragged them along as well, thinking I'd hate to miss this opportunity to make them as "perfect" as possible!

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If you're reading this and know that I'm back-dating these posts, you're probably aware that by now (8/31/17) I should have received the pieces back from chroming.

And I have.....

And they are absolutely GORGEOUS!

But as I type, they are all wrapped-up in bubble-wrap and paper, awaiting the day when I can put each of them back into their proper location.

So other than this "teaser" taken the day we went to pick them up, pictures will just have to wait!