'59 Plymouth Forum

i noticed a lot of the pics of yall's cars appear to have chrome grills. r they chromed or just polished? if they r just polished i will try to do it my self. if it is chromed i will have it done, ball park price would be nice.

The '59's came with two different grilles. The plain dull finish and the shiny grooved finish. If you have the plain dull finish I don't think you would want to chrome it. If you have the shiny groovy one it probably needs cleaning and polishing. Cleaning the corners is a problem. A SOS pad works good but its difficult to do a good job in the corners, even with a tooth brush.

Hello List,
The grilles on the 59 Plymouths were either raw aluminum or anodized aluminum. It is gettting tougher every year to find a nice grille.
And yes, there were two types of grilles..on one the bars were ungrooved, on the other the bars had grooves cut in them. I am not sure, but I believe the grooved anodized grilles were on the upscale models.
Member Tom Fox disassembled his grille and buffed/polished the anodising off, then polished the aluminum to a bright shine. I imagine he sealed the grille at completion of the buffing..
In any event, there is no chrome plating involved.

mine is savoy, so it is just about bottom-of-the-line as a person can get. so the grill i'm sure is just the el' cheapo. to polish, how do u get to all the inside corners?

Believe it or not, Member Tom Fox disassembled his grille and ran each piece thru a buffing wheel by hand! I often wonder how a person could have that much free time. The end results of his work are absolutely topnotch restorations.
Take a look at your grille..if you were highly motivated, you could unbend the bars where they are twisted, and eventually disassemble the whole thing. Frankly, if I had your situation, I would shop for replacement grilles.
I tried some aluminum frame (storm door) cleaner on an anodized grille. It contained phosphoric acid. It did not clean, it stripped the anodizing off, which is not what I wanted to have happen! Since your grille is raw aluminum, MAYBE this stuff would work for you, but with all the nooks and crannies, I think you'd be better off buying one off Ebay.

I thought about disassembling my grille, but getting it back together again I do have an extra one, maybe I'll practice on that one. On the subject of the dull grille and the shiny grille; my Sport Fury has/had the dull one. (I just replaced it with the shiny grooved one). On the other hand there's a fellow here in town that has a plain jane Savoy and his car has the shiny one. And my other 2 Fury's have the shiny grille. I've come up with two theories; my car is a fairly early production model - number 1838, made in Evansville, IN, so maybe at the time and at that plant they were using the dull grille OR maybe if it did come with a shiny grille it was damaged at one time and was replaced with the dull one. Now if somebody out there has Sport Fury number 1837 or 1839 from Evansville the true facts might be known.

all theories are welcome!

polishing i know would be best. i saw a display at a goodguys' show that had some bitchin' polish. they took a normal soda can, with a coarse and a fine polish, made it look like chrome. i would have picked up some on the spot, but that was toward the end of the day and my pockets were getting pretty light. i am afraid to disassemble the grill, is it possible to powder coat, or chrome it? i have never tried either on something so fragile. i do not have the production date for my '59, but the title says it was first sold 2/5/59.

maybe someone on this list will have suggestions..I do not believe a person can chromeplate aluminum. Powder coating..dunno about that, but seems like it would cost more to do anything other than just buy another grille set off Ebay. Since Tom Fox is a List member, I don't think he'd mind discussing the disassembly process with you. I will send you his Email address privately.

thanx, i will message him asap. how much does a grill run?(on ebay)

I cant say..Ive never followed one thru to the end. I have some grilles here, but I havent looked at them for quite awhile. Do you prefer the grooved grilles, or is bright and shiny all you require?
roger

If you are still in Tracy, CA, there is a guy up in Williams, CA named John who runs a salvage yard. He has a 59 Fury parts car. In fact John (Fowlie), a.k.a. Big M, is a member of this Group.

i have conversed with him over the site, his prices r a little steep. what do u mean, "grooved"? i am looking for just shiney, something to complement the rest of the chrome. as it stands now, the dull grill stands out.

there were 3 types of grilles
1) flat bar, no-shine aluminum
2) anodized version of #1
3) on this one the horizontal bars were grooved..they had 8-10 parallel grooves cut into them, and they were anodized..a process that coats them with something to make them shine.
Did Big M quote you a price on grilles? I have some here, but I would have to check to see if any ore undamaged..they were all pulled from salvage yards

there were 3 types of grilles
1) flat bar, no-shine aluminum
2) anodized version of #1
3) on this one the horizontal bars were grooved..they had 8-10 parallel grooves cut into them, and they were anodized..a process that coats them with something to make them shine.
Did Big M quote you a price on grilles? I have some here, but I would have to check to see if any ore undamaged..they were all pulled from salvage yards