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I have had several piece on my car that looked like a bad case of pimples- and was popping through the chrome.
Really buying a reproduction was the only cost effective way to fix it. Potmetal is just a pain to make it look good after its started to deteriorate and rechroming is expensive - especially time consuming repairing the scars left.
I was modding my side vents- one side the chrome was really good- the other side- not so good...
I was debating to just to powdercoating it with some chrome I have that looks pretty good- but it's still not chrome.
Anyway- googled around about potmetal- and read a couple talking about polishing it up.
First I modded the edge and got rid of the raised edge- angle grinder and a flap 36 grit wheel- followed with 150- 400-800-1500- then hit it with my polishing wheel. Finally w/ some Mothers polish.
Turned out REALLY nice- looks exactly like some highly polished aluminum!!!
So - there might be hope for that piece of potmetal you have sitting around!!!
My next project- factory sidepipes!!!
Richard
I'm going to paint the side of the fins gunmetal to match the wheels - and then put a black grill material behind it
Very nice detail work. I worked the same kind of magic on my cross flag emblems. From the factory, they look cheap, with mold flashing, roughness and genuinely look crappy. A half hour with a file, then sandpaper, followed by Scotchbrite and polish, you can turn them into very classy looking and quality pieces. Now, this ends up making them look more a "pewter" / "stainless" look than chrome, rather than chrome look, but in my opinion, they look much better.
Point is, as you have done with the pot metal side grills, a little work can salvage or improve the factory parts.....of course, would not pass the NCRS for originality, so you have to be satisfied with that.
I polished the gas door on mine (I assume that is also pot metal) and it came out pretty good. It held up pretty well in a dry climate, but here where it's more humid, it oxidizes pretty quick. Waxing it seems to make it hold up better.
I polished the rear deck vents years ago and they came up very well, I never coated them and they just get a pass with the detail spray here and there, still nice and shiny but you can see some marks now, probably should come off for a quick touch up
I've clear powder coated a few polished aluminum bits and it does loose a little depth and clarity but not terrible. Biggest problem is then you can't clean in up a little if you want
M
I polished the rear deck vents years ago and they came up very well, I never coated them and they just get a pass with the detail spray here and there, still nice and shiny but you can see some marks now, probably should come off for a quick touch up
I've clear powder coated a few polished aluminum bits and it does loose a little depth and clarity but not terrible. Biggest problem is then you can't clean in up a little if you want
M
Ahhhh- those turned out nice!!!
I've got a couple scrap pieces that I have from cutting off material- I was going to heat in the oven and try hot flocking- hopefully won't have any out gassing problems?
The rear vents might really be tough to powdercoat- as all those close bars might cause Faraday issues.
I'm trying to remember when I polished those last, I've only done them once that I can remember and I've got pictures from 2012 that show them polished. So 8 years with no protection other than the odd wipe when waxing the car and some detail spray....
And yeah I hate trying to shoot into a lot of inside (and outside) corners, usually end up turning the current off and just trying to dust the powder in with air only, sometimes with a soft brush and when all else fails, heat it up and blow it in off the end of a Popsicle stick using Bubba wind power... It can be fairly barbaric around here at times...
M
Or I could have looked at the date on those pictures of the vents, Duh.... Winter of 2011 I installed them so that's how long they've lasted. Whatever they were made of must have been decent stuff. For what it's worth, my side grills had the chrome stripped off and the leading edges of those is just polished and then painted base + clear, that was back in 03 but the car sat in purgatory for a lot of years so they didn't see much light until 2011 again
M
05-24-2020, 11:37 PM
Polishing potmetal-
