My 52 DeSoto grille teeth are pited and one has a hole in it. How is this fixed before having them re chromed?
The teeth are pot metal. There are various "solders" available that work well for repairing pits...I have used Muggyweld with some amount of success. My local plating shop was owned by a guy who loved to do that type of work so I let him repair all the 52-55 Desoto grille teeth that I had replated.
I looked into this for some pot metal trunk hinges I have, one plater told me they can be soldered after being plated with copper.
That is true...in this case any solder will work but I am not sure how the chrome process will work over the top of tin/lead solder. If you have it done this way then post a pic of how it turns out.
p.m. chromeplaterjosh on here. he does chrome plating and specializes in pot metal. did some pretty pitted pot metal dash parts for me and they came out great. good luck.
Ask your plater before doing anything. Most platers don't like to plate over somebody's mystery repair.
If it is going to be plated after repair, you need to use silver solder. Tin/lead solder will not hold up during the plating process and will have a poor result when done. My plater also insists on me letting him repair the parts to be plated. He said it will be cheaper in the long run, because he hinds most fixes still require a good deal of prep before he can plate to make them disappear into the surface.
True, but lead solder can and was used for years with great results. It's just harder to plate than silver solder, and the lower melting point is harder to deal with when copper buffing a soldered part. We don't use it anymore, and I rather like not having any lead dust in the polishing shop. We've used muggyweld, like 10 years ago, but it was more difficult than soldering, and it's pricey to buy.
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