By Lori EhdeClyde’s Chrome Plating opened its doors Dec. 13, and since then business has picked up steadily, according to owners Renee King and Chris Johnson, Luverne."We’re already booked through February," Johnson said Monday.The business is located in the former Nelson Automotive shop on West Main Street.He said their customers tend to be people involved in automotive restoration. Motorcycle and snowmobile restoration enthusiasts factor into their client lists."We’re getting off-the-street business, but we’re doing a lot with Twisted Chopper," Johnson said.King and Johnson had been in Luverne for almost a year before deciding several months ago to start their own business."I liked the town," King said. "It had a lot to offer."She and Johnson live in Luverne with her two children, Landon, 10, and Nathan, 4.They got the idea to start the business after noticing the need."There are very few places that do this kind of work," Johnson said. "It’s nasty work."The work involves chemical and electrical bonding of metal — nickel, chromium and copper — to automotive parts. That’s in addition to cleaning and polishing prep work, which is also dirty work."They say, ‘Just dip it,’ but there’s so much more to it than that," Johnson said. "It’s more of a chemistry and a science."The plating business has a reputation for polluting the environment, but Johnson said that comes from old plating methods.Today, he said, all the chemical and metal solutions are stored and recycled on site. "Nothing goes down the drain," he said. "We can’t afford to have it go down the drain."The degreasers and acids used in the preparation process are caught in a basin and reused and then hauled to the landfill for hazardous waste disposal."Even the air is run through fume scrubbers before it leaves the building," Johnson said.City Wastewater Treatment Supervisor Al Lais has been working with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to be sure there are no pollutants from the business.Lais said the city’s wastewater treatment system of bio-chemically treating water wouldn’t be able to handle nickel and copper if it were to leak into the city’s waste water.King and Johnson said they welcome MPCA involvement, to put the city’s fears to rest.The big question everyone’s asking, though, is "Who is Clyde?" Clyde is their female house cat, who serves as the company mascot on the Main Street sign and on their business cards.Business hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday.