Glavanising
Anodising
Nickel-Plating
Chroming
Powder-Coating
Epoxy Mastic

What say you????

My tuppence worth!

Wishbones on some of the Drakart's I race against are chromed and this seems exceptional durable when compared with other finishes such as my powder coated ones. We race on a mix of tarmac and shale so the wishbones are continually peppered with stones. Its pretty remarkable how nice they stay!

Chrome plating is porous and can peel of in sheets if moisture gets in. To prevent this parts are usually nickel plated then chromed. There is no point in having your parts plated twice so I would go for nickel if I were to choose between those two.

Dave

Galvanizing has to be the toughest - but not the prettiest !

Chroming is but the tougher the more britle it is. so powder coating it the best i would say or stainless 304 grade will last forever if you can get it made in the shapes you need and looks great.

the toughest is whatever my cat just trod into the carpet nothing seems to be shifting it!

I'm no expert but many years ago I seem to recall Lotus chrome plated some of their suspension components and had problems because it masked any stress cracks / welding faults that started to develop.

Lotus used to build everything very lightly so this may not be a problem on a "normal" car.

Just my thoughts!

Depleted uranium.

Tough enough to get the lump of anti-personnel explosive inside an anti-tank missile through the side of a tank.

Hope that helps,
James

[Edited on 8/3/09 by James]

Depleted uranium or U-238 has an atomic mass of 238. Its half-life is 4.468 billion years. It's natural occurrence is 2.1 parts per million. Uranium is silver white, lustrous, malleable, ductile, and pyrophoric. This makes DU an ideal metal for use as kinetic energy penetrators, counterweights, and shielding or armor. High density and pyrophoric (catches fire) nature are the two most significant physical properties that guided its selection for use as a kinetic energy penetrator.

I don't think we'll be using that then

Define tough ? --- Chrome isn't tough it is very HARD

To a materials scincentist thoughness and hardness are conflicting mechanical properties.