"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article .com,
wrote:
Replating the plastic sounds the most viable option.

It's not - at least for manageable production runs. They're often of the
order of 10,000 minimum.

could you plate it with silver, using the Tollens(?) Reaction? IIRC it's
something like silver nitrate solution and an aldehyde, the silver is
precipitatedout on whatever surface the liquid is in contact with; amateur
telescope makers use it to silver their mirrors (for infra-red mainly, and
when a vapour-deposition chamber isn't available to 'em), and if you could
then coat it with a clear varnish/resin it'd stop the silver tarnishing.

Dave H.
(The engineer formerly known as Homeless)