Plastic Repair

pishta said

Turns out my Father-in-law used to work at the Revell plant in Venice, CA! He remembers plating all sorts of stuff in the "vacuum-deposition" chamber that they chromed plastic in. I think he said he put a small chrome pellet into the chamber and hung the sprues in there and magically they were plated? Ill have to get back with him on that.
UV curing, that is bad a$$!

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Well, it isn't "chrome", just a very thin coat of vacuum metallized aluminum. The plastic is painted with a special conductive lacquer, then placed in a vacuum chamber, then the aluminum is thermally vaporized and it adheres to the parts. Later, a protective clear coat is applied on top of that. The "plating" is far too fragile for use on anything but model car parts, or flashlight reflectors and similar things.