More progress. Here's the electrolye from yesterday:



The teal color is copper sulphate, I think. Most of the color is in a layer of small fluffs (probably remnants of the clear coat) settled to the bottom of the tub.

Front progress:



Back progress:



Yesterday I made some improvements to the rig. I got a 6-12V 2.5 amp AC-DC converter, which I pushed all the way up to 12V... this sped up the process. I also switched to a stainless steel cathode (a shower drain plate), which seemed to make the removal more even. See the large orange areas of exposed copper in these grille pictures.

Today's electrolyte is saltier (I tasted it), so we'll see how today goes.

 

Couple of tips for anyone else that does this...

Stainless steel is a much better cathode than aluminum. So good that the redeposited nickel and copper will form a dull, dark gray layer on the steel. I've been able to wipe if off with a terry towel and continue (this keeps efficiency up).

Also, when I dropped the power converter from 12V to 6V (still 2.5A), the activity (bubbling) picked way up. So there's a voltage/amperage ratio that's ideal where the cathode material is a factor.

With the stainless shower drain, I also picked up two 2 foot sections of stainless steel cable. This allows me to complete the circuit without putting any copper wire (which would dissolve) into the electrolyte. They also act as additional cathode.

I've had one piece weaved into the drain plate, and since I'm now running out of continuous plated area, the other one is just resting on a plated area of the grille in the water. I'll now be able to target any areas that got separated.

Next pictures will come when I declare the mad-science portion of the process done, before I take the buffing wheels to it for cleanup. Might happen tomorrow evening. It's quite ugly right now.

 

Getting the last section (one half of the middle bar) dechromed is taking longer than I thought, might not be done until tomorrow night.

I did try to buff the other side of the middle bar clean... and left pits. Continued for an hour of sanding with a 320 grit sponge block, squeaky clean and smooth. Not really looking forward to the rest of the sanding time

 

After 6 days, I'm calling the electric part of this prep done.

Front:



You can see where I've started sanding the remnant plating off. Started with a 320 grit sponge, but moved to 60 grit for speed. Some of the remnants are pretty indignant, others aren't. After it's clean, I'll go back to the 320.

Most of the brown is iron oxide (rust) from the stainless steel cable, which started giving up molecules to the electrolyte. There is still some copper on it, and a few spots of nickel.

Back:



So not looking forward to all the sanding.

And finally, a shot of my cathode showing the nickel/copper/iron deposits between the holes:

 

Yikes, I think it would have been easier to just sand it all down from the start. Not dogging on your method, it just seems super lengthy to end up having to sand it that much anyway to get it where you want it.

So what's the final plan, or is it still top secret?

 

I'm sure it would have worked better with a more optimized setup. But I do have less material to sand off, so it wasn't a total waste of time

Plan now is sanding, filling, final finish work, paint, and then the secret, to be revealed at the end.

 

More sanding progress tonight, but the reason I'm posting this is because I sanded off the rust grime from the whole thing so you guys can see how effective the reverse plating was.

 

Yes, I'm still working on this. I had some computer issues earlier this week, and didn't touch the grille much until today.

After working five 60 grit sponges into a worthless state, I broke out my set of tiny files to clean up the narrow surfaces and in corners. Now the front is 100% bare plastic:



There are a few imperfections that I'll fill in later. The back side will get cleaned with the Dremel next week. Hopefully next weekend I can do the fills.

 

It's been raining every few days, so I haven't had as much time to sit outside and work on this as I'd like. But last night I got it as clean as I can, I think.







There's barely any plating left, and what is still there I'm going to coat over with ABS cement, as paint prep and to restore any strength lost from sanding.

Hopefully later today I can smooth out the rough areas with a higher grit paper and start with the cement.

 

With the sanding done, it's time to start preparing to do the fill work!

As I mentioned in the first post, I save the center parts of the removed bars to transplant as top/bottom edges of the bowtie.

For anyone who hasn't taken a close look at a stock LS/LT grille, the ends of the bowtie don't really exist, the upper and lower bars cover where they would be.

So here are those small sections: the top center edge of the upper bar, and the bottom center edge of the lower bar.



The bottom piece is upside down here, so the view is of both pieces' outer surfaces.

And here are where they will go, the top then bottom (which is upside down) of the bowtie, from behind:





I hope to start the fill work on saturday.