ORIGINAL: RTD
They were peeling before the FX range ... I've got a 40FSR (vintage 1981) with a peeled liner. Fortunately it's peeled below the ports and the engine still runs like a swiss watch.
RTD,
I believe the first models OS had with ABN replacing the ABC, were SFs (and affiliates), not FSRs.
Chromium does not need the surface integrity to bind.
It just binds with all of its back surface.
If you look at it under a microscope, the chromium, looks like dried desert earth, with deep cracks and all.
Every such piece is stuck hard to the brass base metal.
You can grind off an area of chromium, but the rest of the plating will stay put.
In ABN, the surface integrity is paramount, since the bind between the nickel and the brass is much weaker.
The copper flash-coat in current ABL improves the bind a bit, but still, one scratch and within a short period, the majority of the nickel coating is out the door.