Bad pot metal plating, options to clean up

The roof rack on my 59 wagon has some bad plating on the pot metal mounts.
Are there any good options short of re-platting to clean up the look?

The cost on re-platting the 6 mounts and the two cross pieces was too much for the current budget.

 

You can try grinding out the pots with a dremmel and filling them with JB weld sand them smooth and paint

 

Once the plating goes bad, you'll never really get it looking great. But I've had decent results by running parts like this through a buffer using red rouge compound on a sewn cotton spiral buff. This will 'smooth' the pitting out some and put the best possible shine on the remaining plating. Keep it heavily waxed and it can hold up for quite a while....

 

There really is no substitute for having the parts re-chromed.



This looks so much better. HRP

 

I would take some fine brass wool and rub away all of the rust stains and oxidation. It will also make the pits less obvious. That will buy you time until chroming creeps into your budget.

 

Leave the rack off, weld up the screw holes, do the necessary body work, and repaint the roof.

It'll look much better.

 

I have a fair amount of luck soda blasting the parts to remove any oxidation then polsihing them with black rough rouge. Or sandblast them, light coat of bondo to fill in the pits and paint with a "chrome" paint with clear coat.

 

Since you asked for options, those roof rack pieces are perfect candidates for spray chrome. Not the Wal-Mart aerosol " chrome paint", but production spray chrome.

 

Send it to "Pauls Chrome" in Penna,,anong with a bunch of Benjamins..It will look as new when he finishes with it

 

Ya, they quoted me $950 for two small F100 emblems, and they are in far better shape than what you posted. They are catering to the high buck crowd. They've got to pay for their commercials on My Classic Car....

 

I understand but,,,I sent the two trunk spears off a 58 Corvette and they were the only chrome shop that would do the pot metal..They did do an excellant job on them ,,

 

Steve at Advanced Platting did my pot metal "Ranch Wagon" emblems and after he set them back to me I broke one and I had to send it back and have him strip it and repair it and then re chrome it,,and I spent less than half what you were quoted. HRP

 

I laughed at their quote, which they didn't like very well.

 

FYI, Denver Bumper here in Denver, ColoRODo, just closed their doors, after being in business 100 years...and we can thank the EPA for that...it's no wonder those left in the chroming business are pricey. Someone has to pay for those companies to be able to meet EPA requirements.

R-

 

thanks everyone for the ideas.
not familiar with "Spray Chrome" but i will see what i can find out.
re-platting is going to be down the road a ways and I'm looking for a "do no harm" solution so when it does come time for me (or someone else) to shell out the cash it is not even worse.

 

If you have some basic polishing skills, you can sand off what is left of the plating as well as sand out the shallower pits. Once sanded as far as you dare, take a buffing wheel to it and shine them up. The pot metal substrate shines up great, but will dull quickly without protection. A regular polishing and waxing will keep the best shine, but is high maintenance. Clear coating will lose some of the shine, but will be low maintenance. As long as your sanding and buffing job was done without cutting through the parts or taking out detail, the parts will still be good cores for rechroming later on.

This option is very cheap, but the results will depend largely on the one who does the polishing. Good Luck!

 

x 2

 

Thanks, not sure my skills are up to it but may try to practice on some other parts that were replaced and are just about as bad. just to see.

thanks for the suggestion, at this point since the holes are there the plan is still to put it on. it can be welded up and painted later