Eames aluminim restoration  

Consult
I would consult either Graham Mancha in the UK, or Hume Modern in the US. Both have impeccable records of workmanship.

I've contacted Graham Mancha...
I've contacted Graham Mancha but he only seems to want to sell me new arms for a price of about $200. I only paid $130 for the whole chair and due to typical student finances wanted to restore the chair as cheaply as possible. Thanks for the advice though.

its hard to say without...
its hard to say without seeing but I would soak the arms in general purpose thinners (test first) then rub all the clear lacquer off and take them to a metal polisher, electroplater or automotive restoration shop and get them polished and lacquered. Autosol is a great metal polish if you can get it.

If you are in the UK........
A good platers should be able to polish and re-laquer the arms for about £40.
I have used Croydon Electroplaters a few times, and can highly recommend them.. and they will deal by mail.

Thankyou everyone for your...
Thankyou everyone for your help.

Another good platers are...
Another good platers are Premier Platers in Walthamstow www.premierplatingworks.co.uk

Personally I wouldn’t...
Personally I wouldn’t lacquer the aluminium once it has been re chromed, the lacquer generally dulls the bright shine a touch, also it doesn’t adhere to chrome fantastically so it can be prone to chipping when this happens moisture can get in and cause corrosion, if this happens you’ll need to strip and rechrome,
Use a good non abrasive metal polish (peek is excellent for this) regularly on the bare chrome and you should maintain the mirror finish for many years to come
Best of luck with it 🙂

One more thing you might...
One more thing you might want to check that the chair was originally chromed as I believe that some of the early soft pad group had a polished finish, I know this was the case with the aluminium group
You can buy polishing kits from a car restoration suppliers pretty cheap which are very easy to use if you wanted to go down the polished route

I think the soft pad in quest...
I think the soft pad in question has polished aluminium arms which have been lacquered - its not a Vitra chrome plated version. Lacquering anything thats chrome plated would be pointless as chrome is a far harder material than any lacquer. I believe whats happened here (and its pretty common) is that the lacquer has chipped and allowed the polished aluminium to dull.

I wasn't suggesting
I wasn't suggesting you get the aluminium arms chrome plated!
It is just that most electro-platers also do polishing too
A good polish will make them look almost like chrome anyway!

I read through the posts...
I read through the posts very quickly, my apologies Robert
Sorry for any confusion guys
pete

Lucifersum's post
Try contacting both of the shops in Lucifersum's post and ask how they remove the coating. If you can get the coating off, you can get a polish and it should look better than the bubbled arms. You can get metal polish at most auto shops and do a clean enough job to make your chair an even better deal. I'd be suprised if they wouldn't tel you how they get it off. You could call a local plater/powder coater and try having it baked off in their over(they may throw it in with another job for few dollars). I wonder if a heat gun would get it off...Hmmmmmmm?

I'll
I'll ask for you !

I use Jasco to strip lacquer from metal
Go to your local DIY shop or paint store and ask them for a lacquer stripper and they'll fix you up.
I use a product called Jasco available here in the US. You brush it on, wait about 5-10 minutes, and you wipe it off. It may take a little work, but the lacquer will come off. I stripped the lacquer from a silver-plated sax that some idiot sprayed on years ago and it worked like a charm.
Then what everyone else says...get some good automotive polish and buff the arms. They will look great.
fm