The Desoto Grille reproductions,

Sorry if this has ever been addressed before but I'm seeing some of the '52,'54 grille teeth for sale on egay as reproduction castings and im curious

are these being reproduced in great numbers? are there companies putting these out? im pricing out a build and am trying to figure out if when the time comes, these fake grilles would be easy to track down when the time comes. any feedback on these things? Thanks!!

 

Those original teeth are steel stampings if I'm not mistaken. Doing them in cast aluminum isn't a bad idea if they are quality castings and provision has been made for mounting as original. Quality castings are those true to size, without surface flaws, and made of quality polishable alloy.

 

I saw a set under a table at Paso a few years ago. It was the vendor who made them. They looked like polished aluminum at close inspection, probably could pass for chrome at a casual glance. I thought they were well made, at least 1/4" wall thickness.

 

so these things can not be sent to a chromer later on?

 

I'm sure you could get them chromed, look at what they do with aluminum intake manifolds nowadays. Aren't those aluminum grills running about a grand already polished? I wonder how that compares to the cost of chroming an old steel grill.

I remember aluminum chromed being hard to do, but that was the old days.

 

Call Night Prowlers in Lamar,Mo they can probably answer your questions!
I believe he sells these

 

If the grills are polished the hard work is dun. Its the prep work that takes all the time.

 

The original Desoto teeth were pot metal castings. By this time most are pitted and are rather expensive to get plated.

 

not sure if hes still doing them but Sledsville here in riverside was repoping 53's out of aluminum. were about 1400 bucks for a set i think