The faded Caramel beast......'82 Raleigh Gran Sport

Chucked some stickers at the ole girl over the weekend............











Wasn't sure where to put this one.....this seemed like a good place - and it covers up a couple of paint chips.



One last big hurdle to overcome....chroming the forks.

They are terrible and need refinishing, but chroming things seems to be fraught with mis-trust, wildly different quotes, lots of comments about poor quality from most chromers, parts being lost, poor customer service etc etc.......

So -anyone got any first hand experience and recommendations of a quality chroming company and a ballpark figure of how much I should be paying?

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Frame looks way better than mine. Shame about the forks. Odd that they’re so bad?

I use Allenchrome up here in Yorkshire, superb job for £80... however they are currently so busy they won’t even consider any odds & sods till the new year.....

Stickers have certainly given it a lift....

While she’s naked have you weighed her?

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The History Man":2cp0tkci said:

Frame looks way better than mine. Shame about the forks. Odd that they’re so bad?

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Yeah the frame has responded well to a good cut and polish and a set of stickers. I attempted a colour match using some Tamiya paints that I have and managed to get a reasonable match on areas that aren't so obvious (around the seat clamp bolt etc) - but any chips on the tubing stand out like a sore thumb. It'll look good once it's built up though. Seems odd that the forks are so bad. There's a lot of chrome plate missing!

Peachy!":2cp0tkci said:

I use Allenchrome up here in Yorkshire, superb job for £80... however they are currently so busy they won’t even consider any odds & sods till the new year.....

Stickers have certainly given it a lift....

While she’s naked have you weighed her?

Click to expand...

My quotes have been both ends of the spectrum so far. £170 Ashford Chroming, £160 Argos, £135 Bob Jackson (wont be happening!) and £35 from a local plater.

One wonders what will come back for £35....... I was expecting more like £80 to be fair......and the other prices are way more than I want to pay. What can go wrong for £35 right? :facepalm:

Nekkid frame is 2299g.....

Nice weight...

Just popped into these guys in Hull;
https://www.qualitychrome.co.uk/contact_us.php

£75 for a complete fork, looked at the work they were doing. Seems ok. 3-4 week lead time.

Proof will be in the pudding as I’ve left my Colstar forks with them..

The frames really looking lovely, well done that man

And there does seem to be a huge price range in chroming, I know from the quotes I've got at this end of the country I'm finding the same as @sherlylock so thus far I haven't had anything chromed in a while and the one place that would have been my go to for car parts re chroming years ago no longer does chrome unfortunately.

That said I'd almost want to drop a sacrificial pair of forks down to the £35 plater just to see what came back.

Peachy!":w4oevfj2 said:

Nice weight...

Just popped into these guys in Hull;
https://www.qualitychrome.co.uk/contact_us.php

£75 for a complete fork, looked at the work they were doing. Seems ok. 3-4 week lead time.

Proof will be in the pudding as I’ve left my Colstar forks with them..

Click to expand...

Be interesting to see how they turn out - I'll keep an eye out for your Colstar build getting updated!

allenh":w4oevfj2 said:

The frames really looking lovely, well done that man

And there does seem to be a huge price range in chroming, I know from the quotes I've got at this end of the country I'm finding the same as @sherlylock so thus far I haven't had anything chromed in a while and the one place that would have been my go to for car parts re chroming years ago no longer does chrome unfortunately.

That said I'd almost want to drop a sacrificial pair of forks down to the £35 plater just to see what came back.

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Ta! Pleased with it so far.

I have toyed with the idea of just spending £35 to see what they can do for the money. The forks are so bad that anything will be an improvement......whats the worst they can do? Lose them? :shock:

In all seriousness its probably worth a drive over to them for a chat and to have a look at their work.

allenh - looking at your location I reckon I could give you a wave from the seafront (Southend)

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sherlylock":3iwubcmr said:

I have toyed with the idea of just spending £35 to see what they can do for the money. The forks are so bad that anything will be an improvement......whats the worst they can do? Lose them? :shock:

In all seriousness its probably worth a drive over to them for a chat and to have a look at their work.

allenh - looking at your location I reckon I could give you a wave from the seafront (Southend)

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I'd be very interested to hear how you get on with them at that price.

And yes I'm Whitstable so with a couple of pairs of binoculars on a clear day we could probably wave at each other from our respective beaches.

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That frame has come up well.

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dorset boy":3e6c98u4 said:

That frame has come up well.

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Yeah it's better than I first thought - not quite as faded as the title of my thread suggests!

On your GS have you got this sticker anywhere? Wasn't sure where to put it as there was no evidence of it on my frame. The sticker kit also had a Heron badge sticker (like the headbadge) - I assume you don't have that stuck anywhere either?