John,

I don't have a FH but I do have a 4 Million BC that I had the glass frame powder coated with a silver metalic color. This is what I have learned about chroming and powder coating:

1. Chroming has all but disappeared, at least here in SC, due to EPA rules regarding the environment.
2. When chroming is done, the part is usually sent out in a container with thousands of others to China to be chromed
3. Chinese do a lousy job of chroming! It is not a matter of IF it will chip but WHEN it will chip.
4.It takes a long time to get your parts out to China and back
5. You can find a few places in the US that do chroming but very few and they generally do large production jobs and are not interested in small projects like ours.
6. Powder coating is a good alternative
7. Powder coating is still paint and it can chip if abused but is for the most part very very durable
8. My powder coat guy recommends the silver metalic rather than just a sliver "chrome like" color. The "chrome like" color tends to turn out a bit dull and grey colored.
9. My powder coating guy showed me a hub cap that had the silver metalic finish he recommended and that I ultimately went with. He let me examine it then he threw it skidding across the concrete and black top parking lot face down on the finished side. Let me check it out and there were no scratches visible at all! I was impressed.
10. My powder coating guy has hundreds of colors. Some of them are just awesome and cant wait to try some out.
11. Powder coating is not cheap but not ridiculous either.
12. The frame of my 4 Million BC along with the heads of the screws were all done for flat fee of $100.00. I had to wait about five weeks so he could work it in between production runs but he was really busy and it kept my costs down. Another guy wanted $250.00+ to do it right away!
13. My 4 Million BC turned out great. Perfectly smooth finish, very even and sparkles under the light!
14. Part of the cost is preparation of the part to be powder coated. My powder coating guy has his own sandblaster for small jobs (like pinball stuff) but larger things he sends out and that raises the cost. So, if you can do a preliminary cleaning you can probably save some money.
15. The $100.00 I paid included the powder coating guy doing the sandblasting. My frame was very very rusty and the old finish (nickle) was completely worn away in many places. It needed lots of preparation before powder coating.

I hope this helps you make a decision, but I can highly recommend powder coating. If you are just doing the legs it might be cheaper just to buy new legs if you want chrome legs. If you want a color for your legs then go with powder coating.

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