I researched the plating process many years ago, there are a couple of good books on the subject (I am sure that there are MANY good books, but I found one or two that were written for my level).
It would be pretty tough to do this in a home shop for many reasons, here are the top reasons. All of this is from memory, and there may be a few errors, omissions, etc:
1. Health and safety. Most metals require acids for the plating baths, reasonably dangerous but not too bad. Most metals,at least nickle and chromium, to plate well, also require cyanide based plating bath solutions. Very, very dangerous. Hard to purchase, hard to dispose of. Plating process release gasses, cyanide gas is really nasty and leathal.
2. The plating process requires some nice dc power supplies. Different metals require different current densities/voltages, sometimes with varying parameters. Current densities are on the order of a few tenths of an amp per square inch (much higher for chrome). Add up the square inchs of resonable sized pieces and you find that you need a regulated dc power supply capable of provided upwards of 20 to 50 amps. Bumpers require more.
3. The sundries. Plastic bins (or the traditional lead basins) to hold the parts, exhaust fans, containers for the various chemicals. Not the biggest problem, but still a consideration. Also need some polishing equipment, but many of us already have a lot of that.
I don't want to sound to discouraging, but I convinced myself years ago that it was somethings that was beyond what I was willing to do. If you are still interested in plating, there are some areas that are more easily achievable at home:
1. Zinc plating (Eastwood sells a kit and there are electrode less zinc plating solutions which will work if the electrochemical potential is right, ie: zinc over copper)
2. Copper plating. Easier to plate than nickel, chromium. Lowest current density; although commercial shops use a cyanide bath (I believe), there are less toxic alternatives.
3. There is an "electrodeless" nickel plating solution which is available which doesn't require a power supply. Limited to small parts and the cost per square inch is pretty high.
4. Silver plating might be the easiest of the home plating metals, I think that it is. I don't recall much about it because I was not interested in plating silver.
I would like to hear from anybody else's experiences.
-Roger