rajbcpa

...bought some gold plated parts [derailuers front/back, brake levers] for a special project. ...these came from Itally and were purchased through fleeBay.

paying the seller was a royal pain... ....shipping took 9 weeks..... no more FleeBay for me.

where can I purchase a Campy crank - gold plated?

has anyone ever taken an aluminum crank to a professional chrome plater for this? anyone try a jeweler who might try this? what about gold leaf used for religiuos purposes?

I'm out of ideas and need your advice.

Kabuki12

The only ones I have seen for sale are on eBay and they are $$$$$. There are platers that can do gold but you would have to polish the crank first. The machine shops I do work for send parts out for gold , mostly for microwave satellite type parts. You could do gold anodize but it would not match your gold plated parts.

Kilroy1988 

Paying an eBay vendor certainly shouldn't be a painful process, and I would not recommend using that particular seller again in that case. Shipping taking 9 weeks from Italy is rather typical these days, though, considering the pandemic and all that... Even a few weeks from one continent to another is usual for regular post. You just need to be patient with that part.

Good luck finding what you're after!

-Gregory

jackbombay

Paypal is quick and easy in my experience.

cudak888 

What happened that caused the payment issues? As others have pointed out, PayPal is mostly painless and almost entirely biased in the buyer's favor.

International shipping and customs are slow as a rule, regardless of where you buy your items from. Did you compare the shipping date on the box from your date of purchase? If so, you can't really blame the seller or the buying platform for the delays, can you?

-Kurt

Jeff Wills

ICS- Ital Cicli Systems- gold plated Campagnolo Record and C-Record parts in the '80's and '90's. If you are in the U.S. you could have a local shop check with Euro-Asia Imports, who had some ICS parts when I worked there. (Granted that was 30 years ago but Euro-Asia is known to hoard rare old parts.) They do not sell directly to consumers so you'll have to find a dealer who has an account with them.

Very blingy stuff... ICS components and bicycles

repechage

I just referenced the plating shop I would trust.
Gone. Had a devastating fire in 2014 and never recovered- became a superfund site.

all of the gold plated components I have seen are out of Italy. It is I’m sure possible to get a set of cranks gold plated, be interesting how the process works, automotive wheels had an era where chrome plating aluminum rims was a thing. There were high quality efforts and cheapie work too. I would be surprised if gold was plated directly, my guess one or two subordinate layers under.

P!N20

Cyclo Retro in Australia gold plate parts: https://www.cycloretro.com/gold-and-chrome-plating

cb400bill

I believe that they did the gold plate work on this crankset that I saw back in 2019. They also plated some other of the bike's components.

Pics courtesy of retrogrouch

Germany_chris

PayPal isn't as popular in Europe as it is in the states, it's gotten better in the last five years but still nothing like the US

momoman

I’ve never seen the rear brake caliper mounted on the inside of the rear stay before.

zukahn1 

Raliegh America also had some limited gold parts stuff in the circa 1990 which were sold dealer or race team only . I have seen some of there stuff pop up on ebay at decent prices recently but most of it seems to get sold nearly instantly. So if you want nice gold plated or gold tone aniodized parts your going to need to check sale sights ebay, CL and here at the BF's regularly and buy as soon as you see it if the price is semi reasonable.

xiaoman1 

I am normally not a fan of gold plated parts ( I like anodizing because it is subtle) but I must say that the stuff posted here looks gorgeous! I would think any custom plater could do the work...in my opinion I think the parts either need to be new a carefully refinished. I have seen some stuff that wasn't ground/finished and to my eyes, it looks terrible.

I hope this is not a forum members, but it was over-polished causing a loss of detail and creating an uneven/wavy surface and good plater will be extremely careful with the first few rounds of polishing...not all palters can/will take this care. If you decide to go this route be sure to talk to them about what you expect. A good job will cost much more but the final result will be worth it, you pay for what you get., don't cut corners a poorly plated part will haunt you every time you go out for a ride.
Best, Ben

cb400bill

It's not all that common but was the preferred location for builder Brian Smolenski.

rajbcpa

...the trouble with ebay payments started to occur when all 4 debit cards issued by three different financial institutions repeatedly refused to pay a foreign vendor located in any city in italy.... apparently, you could used these debit cards to purchase airfair to italy, italy hotels and purchase the parts but only if you physically are there**********

because I failed to pay vendors, ebay bans you from future bidding, future purchases for 10 days... this is periodic and is NOT consistent from failed purchase attempt-to-failed purchase attempt....?

I don't have paypal but I will apply... ,,,,paypal was once a subsidiary of ebay but was spun off to form a separate publically traded company. ...when paypal began, I was forced to open a new separate checking account. failing this, i was not allowed to purchase anything from ebay. ...and i did this but that is why I never used paypal... likened it to financial extortion...

how does a paypal account work? is it linked to a debit card automatically drawing on the card as paypal transactions are generated - or do you prefund the future purchases with under a dump $ and suck $ out approach...? is paypal a card or only a cloud payment system? ...does paypal have the ability [contractual right] to fail to pay anyone such as a foreign retailer, private party?