Valve Covers

[Pantera]

The cheap Chev originals were somehow not brass plated first or at least they were not polished. Most rechromers do a 3 layer chrome job. The main reason that re-chrome is so smooth is that the brass layer that goes on first is polished to a high and smooth finish before it receives the 2nd layer of nickel and then the actual final chrome layer. The chrome layer is very thin usually.

Chev just did a quickie dip job on them with out doing the high polish layer. Chrome only is as good as the polish and finish that it goes on to.

I would bet that some body that does this kind of work could duplicate the factory shoddy work if you wanted them to.