Slo
I think it will increase the value, alot, or at least keep the value up. From what I've read, hard chroming is a good thing for an old, long crankshaft versus welding which puts lots of heat and bending into it, plus surfacing and hardening which add more heat (nitriding a crank is done by putting the crank in a nitrous oxide gas environment at 800 degrees F for a day or two), plus straightening again after. An unhardened crank has a Rockwell hardness of about 50, a nitrided one about 55 and hard chrome about 70. What people look for in an old Aston is oil pressure, oil pressure, oil pressure. The mains are supposed to be set at 1-1-1/4 thou. cold because the aluminum block expanded a lot when hot and oil pressure would go to crap. I ran my 84 Targa HARD through the Mojave desert last August and it maintained 4.5 druck all day. The Aston could never do that even if it had 1 thou of clearance. Also, while the car looks good in internet pics, its not a show car, its nice, but not a show car. Also, bringing the crank back to standard is good, because the demand for bearings is for 10 and 20 thou undersize. Here's a pic of the head as it came off the car, if anyone is interested.
