'59 Plymouth Forum

To Hawkeye Jim,
It is I who evidently is too "in your face" with comments I make on this site.
I have an honest desire to help fellow car owners in any way I can, but I admit I get irked when the "line goes dead" so to speak. I was way out of line when I implied that you should make all your conversations public. That was not the point.
Matthew and his dad bought their convertible from me a few years ago. The Keijs were active List members for a time, but they've gotten busy with other things, and their posts to this site have dropped off. I miss them.
I have sent other members posts over time, and have not heard back from them. You speak of etiquette..I wish folks with whom I was corresponding would REPLY, saying thank you and goodbye! Then I would not sit here expecting any more posts..

I hear you loud and clear Roger, and couldn't agree more. I make it a point to always try and respond promptly to messages, be they posts: email or voicemail. it's just the courteous thing to do. if anything, sometimes maybe I take it too far and it looks like I'm just trying to get the last word in

Hows about you let me ask you another ridiculous question, evidencing once again that I am not too proud to flaunt my naivete: since the exterior trim is stainless steel, not chrome, and could actually be sanded down and re-polished if need be, is the opposite is true for the interior, that is, is it all chrome that would need to be re-plated if it gets dinged up too bad?

Thanks in advance for the ongoing education,

Jim

You are absolutely correct, Jim! Stainless steel trim can be hammered and picked back into shape, sanded, polished and buffed. Listmember Tom Fox is an artist at this...he showed me how he straightened and buffed the trim on his cars to like-new condition.
Any chrome-plated steel items which have gone bad must be stripped ofall plating and then re-chromed.
The taillight pods and fender mirrors are also plated, but made of pot metal, which tends to pit. The pits have to be drilled out (like a tooth cavity), and then filled before they can be re-plated...

Following on with what you just said Roger, What do they use to fill the pot metal pits after its cleaned.
I dont think solder sticks and brazing woould be too hot for pot metal wouldnt it?
is there a special alloy that would adhere to pot metal? My air demister swivels on the dash of my 57
were pitted and I wanted them chromed instead of coloured. I couldnt get anything to stick so I filled with
body filler and painted them black.

Hopefully someone has better information than what I can say here.
As I understand it, one of the problems with pot metal is its low melting point.
Years ago I bought a product called MuggyWeld, which is some sort of alloy marketed especially for pot metal repairs.
I had a pair of taillight housings which had been professionally stripped of plating and then had a base coat of copper put on.
The housings had been sitting at the platers for so long that I finally went in and took them back in their interrupted stage of plating.
I drilled out some of the many pits and tried with MuggyWeld and a blowtorch to fill the holes. The stuff stuck just fine but I didnt have the technique and put too much on, so then of course I'd have to file (or sand or grind) off the excess. I quickly grew tired of the whole process! I sent another pair of better housings to a different plater (who sent them to Canada for plating): those housings came back beautifully done and went on the convertible.

Never heard of the stuff Roger. S'pose its called something different everywhere you go. Will have to look out for something and get back to you when i do my repairs.

Jason - Got to www.eastwood.com they sell the product #19081 Delux kit, everthing you need $44.99. You can repair Aluminum and Pot Metal. It's called Alumaweld fluxless soldering process.
Dick

Thanks Dick, will look out for both products when i do my taillight bezels on the coupe. Like Rogers, they are pitted too!