Grill and Headlight Bezel Restoration

mopar_4life · Dec 28, 2015

Hello,

I am gearing up to restoring/refinishing my Grill and Headlight Bezel off of my 65 Polara. I was wondering what material it is made of? Stainless, chrome, other random element.... :yaayy:

Second, is there any recommendations on metal polish?

Third, how to refinish the black painted sections? Pin-striping paint?

Lastly, the grill it self has some breaks in the metal. What would be good to reattach it?

I'll post pictures as work progresses.

Thanks

Big_John · Dec 28, 2015

That looks like die cast to me. Basically it's what they call "pot metal", an alloy with made with zinc. After it's cast, it's chrome plated.

It breaks easily, gets pitted and is very expensive to have professionally restored. It also has a very low melting point so any work with a torch to repair the pitting or fasten it back together is touchy at best and at worst, leaves you with a puddle where you grille used to be.

You might be able to epoxy the breaks together. You might have to reinforce the back. You can paint it with just about any spray paint like Krylon or something like that. Wipe it down with lacquer thinner or acetone before spraying.

To polish the chrome up, I like Collinite #850 "Metal Wax". That seems to do the best for me, but others have their favorites.

You won't be able to do anything with the pits.

Wollfen · Dec 28, 2015

With that number of breaks showing you are probably better off searching for a better grille to start with. Not easy to find but they are out there.

68Bigred · Dec 28, 2015

I used a product called muggy weld but once done can't rechrome it. Sadly I spray painted mine, looks great but no longer chrome look.

mopar_4life · Dec 29, 2015

I looked into that Muggy Weld, It looks like after the repair you can have it re-chromed. It looks like the big catch is that you have to have the piece removed of all chrome.

And if I do all of that prep work, maybe it would be best to have it powdered coated. Would need to have to all of the "Chrome" powder coated? Would it look weird having some Chrome and some powdered?

All in all I am looking to make the best with what I have so I have some more research to do.

Big_John · Dec 29, 2015

I've never used the "Muggy Weld". It looks good in the videos.... but they're not going to show you how many times they got it too hot and turned it into a puddle either.

Powder coating is pretty good. It will not look like chrome. It may look like polished aluminum, but never have the true chrome look. If that is good enough, and it might well be, then you can use high temperature epoxy to fill the pits. As with plating, the expensive part is the prep work. If you were to strip the chrome by sandblasting (wear a respirator please), do all the repairs, and then have a pro do the powder coating, you can do this pretty reasonably. Spraying the powder coating isn't rocket surgery, and there are kits, but you would need a large enough "dedicated" oven to do it yourself.

Slantsix · Dec 30, 2015

Dont they use silver to fill holes on those?

Big_John · Dec 30, 2015

Slantsix said:
Dont they use silver to fill holes on those?

If mean silver solder, yes... although it's not as easy as just filling the holes. Silver solder is solder alloyed with silver instead of lead. (very simplified explanation) The silver is harder and stronger.

The part is stripped of its plating first. The usually means sand blasting.

Then it's plated with a thick coat of copper. The holes are soldered up.... again that involves some very skilled work with a torch.

The part is filed and sanded until smooth and then plated again with copper. Keep in mind that the best plating will only look as good as the surface is at this point. It will be buffed and then nickel plated, then chrome plated.

The expensive part is the labor. With a complicated grille, it can add up to where NOS looks dirt cheap.

Zymurgy · Dec 30, 2015

Slantsix said:
Dont they use silver to fill holes on those?

They actually use copper. The big problem I see is the grill is too delicate to grind down to copper the pot metal and then they would never be able to buff it after it was re-chromed.

This is my rear tail lights and they are twice as thick and a royal pain for them, but here is the after.

~

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Big_John · Dec 30, 2015

Yes, if the pitting isn't deep, then it is plated with copper and buffed down. They keep plating with copper and buffing it down until the pits are filled.

I was talking about actual holes and deep pits. I should have been more specific.

mopar_4life · Feb 14, 2016

Had some free time this weekend and started to work on these. I got one bezel polished up and some of the polishing done on the internal plate. I have given the inners a bath and was thinking that Perhaps I should paint the "Cups" or perhaps maybe powder coating. Should I worry about it?