I will see what I can remember, scant as it is.

First we used, I believe sodium phosphate solution to remove any oils.

Blasted that off with pure water, 12 Megohm.

Activated with stanus chloride, not stanic chloride. It needed to be relatively fresh or it changed to stanic. (Hydrochloric acid and tin, leave an extra tin strip in the mix to help keep it active longer. Blast off with pure water.

I do not remember the full formula and procedure to make the silver nitrate solution, but it was many steps with a day in between, then adding another chemical till it turned faintly brown, then a day and adding another till it turned clear, another day and something else till it turned faintly brown again, then leave in a dark room for three weeks. It would have probably been cheaper to buy it but we made it.

Make a developer solution of rock candy and water. Sugar is a great developer.

Pour the nitrate solution and sugar water together over the item, swish it around for about two minutes under bright lights and it will form a 10 micron coating of silver on the plastic.

Then nickle plate it in a solution of nickle sulfamate, sulfuric acid and boric acid. I do not remember the amounts but it was about 400 gallons of sulfamate, a cup of 12 molar sulfuric acid then a pouch of boric acid which was left in the tank to achieve saturation. We used either 100 or 200 amps for 3.25 square feet of plated of record. The current per square foot is critical, each element plates out best at a certain current. (We got rid of tramp calcium at about 600 amps, and tramp copper at about 40 amps. Those two can cause cracking of the silver plate when starting.)

A chemical supply house can help you with specifics. So can the book 'Chemistry Cookbook'.

It has been over 20 years since I had to control this process, so a lot is gone from memory. You may find a nickle plating company who can do it for you at not too high a price.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.