I want to send my Street Bob's dash out to be chromed but every chrome place I can is asking me what material it is made out of. Does anyone on here know what material is used to make a 2011 Street Bob dash?

 

I spoke with a place the other day about a CVO dash I'm putting on and he wanted to know the same thing. They said a lot of these things are pot metal and much more expensive to chrome and to check put a magnet on it. Magnetic is steel and if not then zinc/pot metal and the price goes up to better than double.

 

The problem here is that you can't electroplate onto plastic if the tank concel is plastic. I have a buddy who has a Cosmic Chrome spray booth (http://www.cosmichrome.com/home.htm). This is a silver spray on process that gives a mirror like finish. But the SB concel has a wrinkle finish and that would take some prep work ($) to smooth out. Give my buddy a call (Jack Lavine) at Capitol City Chrome. His cell phone # is: 218 349-5053.

 

Steel, I have tested it with a magnet the other day.

 

Never seen a HD dash made of plastic - you can plate plastic but its a vaccum plating process just like those used on "chrome" grilles and such on cars, its not chrome but looks just like it. There is also a process where you can put real chrome onto fiberglass products by spraying it with a conductive primer.

 

It would probably be much cheaper to find a used chrome one, or make a trade with someone who is wanting to switch to black.

 

Have you considered just swapping the dash/console for a 2010-later chrome Wide Glide dash ...? It would entail moving your key/ignition switch to the console (which many prefer) ... but, the speedometer and indicator lights would still work ....

There have been a couple of good threads 'how-to' recently (within about the past year) ... another option would be to switch to a Fat Bob dash (would require swapping out your speedometer for the larger diameter one) ....

R/
'Chop

 

It cost me $125...back in 2006.

After the plater was done with it, he said he should have charged me more.

Apparently, after stripping the wrinkle finish, the metal needs a lot of prep work to make it smooth for chroming. I would guess that it had ripples and stuff from bending that would be concealed by the wrinkle finish.

Here is the first Bob dash to be chromed! It still looks great and I'm glad I did it...actually, it was in the plans while i was buying the bike.

 

A couple more options ... strip off the wrinkle black finish and have it either (i) polished or (ii) powder coated a 'faux chrome' finish ....

 

A guy from a French Street Bob only forum polished hes, zéro cost and it looks great !

I'll try to find a picture if you're interested...