Not much you can do about pitting once it starts. Pitting comes from beneath the chrome and migrates out to the surface. It has more to do with the surface preparation of the metal BEFORE the chroming process during manufacturing, than how much sweat, etc the drum was exposed to during its gigging life.

Ah. That's the information I was digging for.

A good wax will protect it from the elements, but pitting is the enemy within... nothing to be done, really. Is there?

Same with flaking, I imagine. The plating simply doesn't stick to some metals. Aluminum is one, right?

Which explains the bright anodizing on the vintage cars....

Thanks all!

Aluminum can be chromed, as seen by our supraphonics, however, the base metal must be properly prepped and free of any contaminents in order for it to stay on the shell like its supposed to. Many will notice that the 60's supras hold up slightly better than the 70's counterparts. I believe where Ludwig was sourcing the shells changed, as well as who they were using for their plater. The combination of the two along with improper prep work is the most likely cause of the dreaded "Supra acne".

Now here is an idea I've been contemplating with an 80's Acrolite I own......one of the powdercoated models....I've seen a few guys strip off what's left of the chrome on a supra and prep the shell for powdercoating, an ingenious idea to say the least. But I was thinking of going one better. The Acrolite I have has powder coat that is in bad shape in certain spots. I figure to strip it down to bare metal, like the guys with the flaky chrome supras do, but instead of re-powdercoating it, highly polish the shell to a mirror finish! It would look almost as good as chrome, I think.

Ideas??

It sounds possible. I've used a polishing shop for some work on Speed King pedals, and they finish with a bright clear, chrome-like finish. Vey surprising. On a larger piece, a shell, I don't think it would be an exact substitute for chrome, but it would certainly be great looking.

And polishing is affordable. Re-chroming is pretty $$!

Just an idea for an alternative to re-chrmoming or powdercoating was my theory.....would be better looking than powdercoating but as you said, less expensive than re-chroming for sure. I'm sure that Ludwig went with chrome for a durability vs end cost factor. Otherwise, the smart bet would have been to polish the shells. But I'm sure the labor cost would have outweighed the cost of chroming at the time.

"At the time" being the operative words!

These days, chroming is very $ at least in the US. Polishing, with the right tools, is not very labor intensive, and could be done fairly cheaply. Particularly in this day when Mfrs find off-shore labor costs so low.

But whoever did the chrome on the Speed King rocker cam did a helluva job! That chroming is beautiful, durable, and thick!