How to Fix Large Scratches and Gouges - DIY Golf Club Restoration 

This is what RU-vid was made for. This is FASCINATING Brad!!!!! Well done.

having watched so many restoration videos, my dead ass thought welding is answer to all gashes lmao. good job on restoring this beautiful blade. good video.

Enjoy and appreciate your DYI vids! One of the 2 ways to remove the gouge would include removing all of the plating first vs. grinding, deburring or sanding the existing chrome plating, then adding to it. You kind of did a spot repair which changed the shape somewhat since more of the head than just the gouge was copper-plated. You've probably watched the Brit on RU-vid re-chrome clubs and bumpers, etc.; that is his family business. After removing the paint, he reverses the process (the charge) to remove all of the plating before going to town with an industrial bench grinder including various mops. His motto "clean is King" makes sense, and you're doing your level best to replicate that process on a much smaller scale. He goes from tank to tank ensuring there's no contamination and that the metal won't oxidize or rust. Your clubs look great, but they'd obviously look better if all plating, and scratches, gouges, etc., was removed first. Your vids are great for the DIYer who doesn't have a shop or a couple hundred grand to open one for the occasional golf club restoration project. No scrubbers, permits, EPA checks, etc.

Beautiful!!! I'm not a fan of chrome or mirror finish on stuff(cars) but golf clubs there's just something about it!!

Just the tip I needed.

Someday when I’m financially stable I’m going to do this. Love these videos! Big mizuno fan

Work of art! Bravo!!

And I saw you fixed the blemish by the hosel ! I think the definiton of perfection has to be changed to Brad Meehan!

and yes your link is SPOT ON, well done!

This is very interesting and did a good job but, not many amateur golfers are going to have the fluids and equipment to do this. And the pros just get a new club.

Love your work Brad & good sense of humour 👌

Great work! Inspiring to view your work. I just got a set of Wilson Reflex that are pretty decent. Thanks to you they are going to sparkle. Thanks again.

So I have very bad seizures and it’s hard to work or stay busy. I bought all the stuff to do this and LOVE your videos… But this process I don’t understand and would like to get your advice on EXACTLY what to buy to be able to do this. PLEASE reply and let me know what I can get and some advice would be AWESOME. Either way I appreciate your videos. VERY inspiring.

Love it! Great work

Came across your channel last night and absolutely love it. Out of interest I wondered what all is entailed in refurbishing golf clubs and your videos have got me now wanting to do it lol.

Great job, club looks new man.

Watching some of you other videos i always wondered why you sprayed water on them, and now i know. Checking to see if it was clean

Really informative.

Sweeeet!!!!! Awesome work and supply page Brad!

Great video , and a great result on that iron 👍

You said you a did a pretty good job.. I think you did a bloody brilliant job that 6 iron looks SPANK!

Beautiful work well done 🙂

I’d love to see a follow up video with your final thoughts after having played a few rounds with these clubs. Let us know how well the copper and nickel has held up. Would you do it again or do anything different?

Beautiful work. Let me know when you want to go crazy on my Titleist AP1's.

Love this. Read about Ricky Fowler putting tungsten in the bottom of his wedges. I assume this is what they did to cover where they drilled it and put the pieces in. I wish I could play with my clubs like that. :)

seriously, damn good job Brad...!

I wish I could actually do this 😔

thank you brad

Very impressive!

Dude that is awesome!!!!!!

Thanks for sharing the knowledge- hard to find such detailed explanations. Silly question here but how are you not getting shocked holding onto the club when removing the chrome?

You can do the same thing with powder cleaner from walmart iys just pumice super fine, I use it to clean silver before I do a patina on it. No beading just a smooth sheen.

Just curious as to how the copper filling is holding up?

You are a magician....

Hi Brad, can we check how does it hold up so far? Am thinking to just nickel plate brush all the irons soles to restore all the dings this way as u did but worry it doesn't hold up well thanks

Wish my MP-32's look like that......Nice...

Again … great informative video! I took you nickel plating information with brighter from Caswell and it worked great. Now I see you are using to repair and I also assume can also plate other than bath way. I have the electric side and I will need the positive and negative and swabs to spread the plating material that you dip in … am I correct? I have seen this and thought it required sort of expensive electric application equipment …. But I guess not. Any information would be helpful…. Thanks again👍👍👍

Wow, amazing

excellent, thank you this video

Awesome work!!!!!

That’s amazing!

Great watch 💕 ⛳

Looks good

I fkn love golf science

Incredible

Loving your videos Brad. I have a lot of old sets I would like to refurbish. I like the idea of copper plating dings... what are your thoughts on soldering or welding to fill in dings? Is it something you have considered?

Nice video man. At the end, you re-chromed the club, or that mirror-finish comes out after polishing it?

Thanks for the video! I had an idea of filling in the large scratch with melted lead and then smoothen them by polishing. what's you're thought about this idea?

Wow, love it

I love it.

I have Mizuno MP 20s and I can’t wait until they get old and rusted so I can bring them back to life

The smacking of the TEEEEEETH for the first 1:30 killed me

pretty amazing.

nice work

Crap. Now I need more clubs. I'm guilty of hoarding up a bunch of 70's and 80's classics and most of them could use a little bit of work. Two sets are super clean (one has been buffed for sure), but have lots of "history" on them. Bag chatter is what I hate most. I enjoy renewing old tools and clubs too-THANKS!

What sorcery !!!

Fantastic video. Possibly an experiment but do you think a 'dot and dab' approach to electrocleaning specific spots for plating (brush or otherwise) would be successful?

BTW, echoing another viewer's question, do you have a list of "tools" compiled? If not, could you produce a video of your setup? I do detail cleaning of clubs for golfers by word of mouth. I would love to move up in quality and follow your techniques. I've viewed the Brit also but think your work to be quite impressive. Thanks for the great videos and the motivation to take the next step.

This is great. Do you sell the clubs after?

Is nickel plating your last step for forged heads? Is chrome plating what forged usually are? Yours look amazing when done. Is rechroming more challenging?

Unreal!!!

That’s awesome

Alchemy!

Hey Brad can you recommend what kind of rubbing compound or whatever really you'd use to remove scratches on the club face without altering the grooves? Nothing crazy or deep just normal wear on the short irons from bunkers etc.

Do you restore clubs for viewers? If so, I have Spaulding tpm 3 putter I would like done with the gun metal blueing.

Two questions. 1. Why did the nickel strike turn it a yellow copper color? Being nickel I figured it would be that silver color? 2. In the small nickel plating cup you use how long do you normally leave a club head in?

Hey Brad, what type/brand of copper solution did you use for this project? And what type of brush anode (steel or nickel) did you use to brush on the copper? In future videos, is it possible for you to mention the voltage and current you're using as you move through each step?

I have a set of the TM Tour Preferred T-D irons I’m about to tackle however two of the heads have pretty serious gouges on the bottom of the face right near the heel if that makes sense. Almost looks like someone hit a big rock or something. Anyways how would I go about filling something like that or is my only option to sand it until it looks less noticeable?

Awesome!!! How did you do the final plating?? Thank you!

How does that hold up after playing with it?

Hey Brad, just wondering if you're using the nickel anode in your plating wand when doing the nickel strike or if its just the steel one? Gold plating services website seems to say you should use the nickel anode but then the actual bottle of Woods Nickel Strike says you can use either?

Would love to do something like this

JB Weld

Hi Brad, Sorry for commenting on the old video! Just curious as i was looking a nickel brush plating kits... Why couldnt you just brush plate all your clubs? i.e. just as you did for the copper but using nickel plating solution on the whole club? the hassle of setting up the tank and still only being able to do one at a time seems an effort to me. Interested to hear your thoughts. Respect from scotland btw!

Mind blown

Excelent!!!

Hows that club holding up so far? The plating holds up?

Hey Brad, how long did it take you to build up enough copper to fill that gouge?

what grit did you use to sanding

Was hoping you would reply with the below question

Hi Brad, for the brush plating are u using the same electroplating solution?

I have an odd question...I'm wanting to fill in the stamped numbers on the sole of my irons and then re-stamp them...do you think it could be done using the same process you used to fill in the groove on this iron...or do you have a better idea? Anybody with a good solution I'm all ears!!!

Hey Brad, do you know if this can be done with other metal solutions?

So can we end out forged wedges to you to fix?

Do you/would you take in clubs from viewers? I have a set of Hogan Apex Pluses and a set of Mizuno MP60’s that I’d love to have restored.

Is there a way you can do the face of the club by using a grinding wheel?

1. how long does it take to plate the copper enough to fill in that big scratch? 2. is there a reason why you use copper plating to fill in the scratch,? (even though it needs extra work like nickel strike proccess) is there a advantage?(such as plating speed etc.)

Do you have a link for the electro cleaner?

Do you take club orders for refurbishment?

Brad, theoretically could you strip a wedge to bare metal and install an “underlayment”’ of copper on the face, and then re-chrome? I would assume that after the copper is placed on the face; the face would have to be re-grooved before the re-chrome? Some of the softest feeling Japanese wedges of old (Maruman, Sonartec, etc) were stainless over copper faces and they all had an unreal soft feeling…..I worked for EV at the original Snake Eyes company in Ponte Vedra, Florida. The MB-1 “Forged by Smith and Wesson” irons used this copper underlayment, but we weren’t privy to the process. What say you, sir? Is this possible?

Can you do the nickel plating the same way you did the copper? I have a set of Rbladez that have light browning on the face. I wanted to do a light sanding and cleaning of the grooves. Then wipe nickel plating on and finish it with the blasting like in your other video. I dont want to dip it in a tank because of the logo on the back. Whats you opinion on that?

How long does this take and how much do you charge for an iron like this?

Have you ever tried silver solder ?

Plating up a surface to fill in a dent must take forever

Is anything you're using toxic? Respirator?

Hmmmm yes quite the ‘big ol gash’ indeed

WOULD YOU REBUILD FACE GROOVES THE SAME WAY?

Do you do this as just a hobby or do you do this as a job?

I noticed a couple of days ago that all the tools you use were listed below, like what and where to buy and now that list is gone. Is there any way to view this list again?

i need to fix large scratcher and gouges, where can i find out where some of these shops are in texas?