Renewing Trim around the speedometer, 66 Sport Fury

[Evan Jansen]

When I posted some pictures of the Auto Pilot controls on my 66 Sports Fury, I noticed how crappy the trim around my speedometer looked(see photo). I really don't know how it happened but it seems to have peeled done to the plastic.
Is there a simple fix that any of you have come up with?

Is there a simple fix that any of you have come up with?

 

[mr. fix it]

Hi there Evan.

There's no true easy fix that will restore it to factory appearance.

A few members have had their plastic flash chromed again at some considerable expense.

I personally sprayed mine with aluminum spray paint to freshen it up.

i tried adding a chrome strip around the edging but it didn't come out right as it wasn't stretchy enough to conform correctly to the piece so i left it off and added red pin striping tape since my interior is very red already.
(You can see the chrome I tried to apply on the gear selector plastic.)

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

The only way to do it is to have it all stripped to bare plastic, and repeat the original process. The dash bezels and glove box door on a 65/66 Furies were plated with metal using a process called Vacuum Metalizing - What Is the Vacuum Metalizing Process? - Vacuum Metalizing

Then the argent and black portions are painted over top of the shiny metal plating.

I had mine stripped and plated by a company in Toronto, and I was fairly happy with the metalizing, but it was not perfect. The parts have to be surgically clean, which is near impossible on a 50 year old part, however diligent one is in prepping the part for plating. Imperfections will be present, but most can be covered up by the subsequent finishes, and one can still make do.

I believe Mr. G's used to offer the process as well.

There are a number of places that do Vacuum Metalizing - check around. Vacuum Metallizing in Southern California (CA) on Thomasnet.com

Here are two pics of my dashes after redoing the bezels:

 

[CBODY67]

Some of the re-metallized plastic trim I've seen for sale comes out far too shiney compared to what they were originally. Like "show chrome" compared to normal OEM-spec chrome. As if the orig metallized chrome was more satiny than shiney, by observation.

Just my observations,
CBODY67

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

I had an NOS piece to compare, and it was quite shiny itself, so I guess I lucked out. It was also useful in matcing the argent and black finishes.

 

[mr. fix it]

The only way to do it is to have it all stripped to bare plastic, and repeat the original process. The dash bezels and glove box door on a 65/66 Furies were plated with metal using a process called Vacuum Metalizing - What Is the Vacuum Metalizing Process? - Vacuum Metalizing

Then the argent and black portions are painted over top of the shiny metal plating.

I had mine stripped and plated by a company in Toronto, and I was fairly happy with the metalizing, but it was not perfect. The parts have to be surgically clean, which is near impossible on a 50 year old part, however diligent one is in prepping the part for plating. Imperfections will be present, but most can be covered up by the subsequent finishes, and one can still make do.

I believe Mr. G's used to offer the process as well.

There are a number of places that do Vacuum Metalizing - check around. Vacuum Metallizing in Southern California (CA) on Thomasnet.com

Here are two pics of my dashes after redoing the bezels:

View attachment 461435 View attachment 461436

I knew that you would respond to this Ross.
I have dash trim envy when I see your Monaco interior

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Thanks for the kind words @mr. fix it !

Some of the re-metallized plastic trim I've seen for sale comes out far too shiney compared to what they were originally. Like "show chrome" compared to normal OEM-spec chrome. As if the orig metallized chrome was more satiny than shiney, by observation.

Just my observations,
CBODY67

I wonder if the level of shinyness has anything to do with what metal is vapourized during the metallizing process. IIRC, mine were done with aluminum pellets, but perhaps other metals are used for different sheens.

 

[Big_John]

I wonder if the level of shinyness has anything to do with what metal is vapourized during the metallizing process. IIRC, mine were done with aluminum pellets, but perhaps other metals are used for different sheens.

There are a couple methods used these days and I think vacuum metalizing has been surpassed by the better and cheaper method where the plastic is coated with a conductive paint and then plated using conventional electro/chemical methods like you would a bumper. That would be real plating and would have a different color than vacuum metalized plastic, but the uneducated eye would not know the difference. It should stand up much better too.

My point being that I would speculate if the resto shops are really vacuum metalizing or doing the plastic plating. The vacuum metalizing calls for some special equipment and I think a guy in his garage can do the plastic plating. Think about it... Better results with a cheaper process... and all the customer sees is his really shiny part.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Interesting - hadn't heard about that process...

Vacuum Metalizing is typically big batch - like 10,000 parts at a time or in a run.

 

[Evan Jansen]

Ross, Mr Fix It and everyone else. Thanks for the advice and photos. Very helpful

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

There are a couple methods used these days and I think vacuum metalizing has been surpassed by the better and cheaper method where the plastic is coated with a conductive paint and then plated using conventional electro/chemical methods like you would a bumper. That would be real plating and would have a different color than vacuum metalized plastic, but the uneducated eye would not know the difference. It should stand up much better too.

My point being that I would speculate if the resto shops are really vacuum metalizing or doing the plastic plating. The vacuum metalizing calls for some special equipment and I think a guy in his garage can do the plastic plating. Think about it... Better results with a cheaper process... and all the customer sees is his really shiny part.

I looked into this some time ago, and spoke at length to an executive at one of the big scale automotive plastic platers here in Ontario.

I was attempting to get some unobtanium chrome trim created by having it 3D printed, and then sent to a plater for just such process as you described above. At the time, the issues were that the platers can only get the kind of results satisfactory by having nearly glass smooth parts (near impossible with 3D printers, as some texture always seems to remain), and that the material most preferred by the platers is ABS plastic, and at the time, ABS was not 3D printable. Perhaps that's changed.

Regardless, each part would still require hand finishing (sand and polish) to remove the texture left by the 3D printing process prior to coating with the conductive paint and plating. Unless one is talking big scale production, you can see how that would be not cost effective for a run of a few dozen parts, or even a run of only a few thousand to service a hobby-wide need for a 1 year only trim part, and in my case, far outstrips the cost of having pitted and corroded originals hand repaired and replated.

As well, this need for perfectly smooth parts affects the results of vacuum metalizing when restoring parts, as there's often stuff (dirt and contaminants) that leave areas less than perfect. I had my dash parts back two or three times in some cases to get results I was satisfied with, and I'm sure the company was glad to see me exiting their establishment. They were (as I noted above) a business that had all the specialized equipment that helped out the little guys like me by putting our parts in with big production runs.

However, progress is progress, and I haven't followed up or kept pace with any developments in this area, and would appreciate any links you can provide regarding the do it yourself plating at home, John.

 

[Big_John]

I looked into this some time ago, and spoke at length to an executive at one of the big scale automotive plastic platers here in Ontario.

I was attempting to get some unobtanium chrome trim created by having it 3D printed, and then sent to a plater for just such process as you described above. At the time, the issues were that the platers can only get the kind of results satisfactory by having nearly glass smooth parts (near impossible with 3D printers, as some texture always seems to remain), and that the material most preferred by the platers is ABS plastic, and at the time, ABS was not 3D printable. Perhaps that's changed.

Regardless, each part would still require hand finishing (sand and polish) to remove the texture left by the 3D printing process prior to coating with the conductive paint and plating. Unless one is talking big scale production, you can see how that would be not cost effective for a run of a few dozen parts, or even a run of only a few thousand to service a hobby-wide need for a 1 year only trim part, and in my case, far outstrips the cost of having pitted and corroded originals hand repaired and replated.

However, progress is progress, and I haven't followed up or kept pace with any developments in this area, and would appreciate any links you can provide, John.

You can print ABS. I don't know a lot about it, but as I understand it, to print ABS you just need a heated platen and a lot of the lower end machines have that now. You still have the "texture" and that's all about the resolution of the printing process.

I think the way to do something like that is to print the part and use it to cast the new parts in bronze or aluminum. I looked at some repop tail light bezels for my Barracuda and I'm 99% sure they were bronze or a similar alloy. That skips having to plate with copper if you use the right alloy.

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

I looked into that too - and at the time the casting guys didn't like the texture of the printed part.. I was looking into pot metal, and in addition to texture transfer, one had to deal with casting shrinkage - the part comes out slightly smaller. While it didn't pose an issue for my part, getting things that need to mesh or mate with additional original trim to come out after all the steps at just the right size again proved daunting.