Happy thanksgiving all!
Curt's input is correct, and not inconsistent with mine from before.
I neglected to mention in my prior posting that the under-plating is nickel.
Ken Sabin, the plater I'm doing my grille with, always does a first coat of
nickel on all chrome jobs. In the past he has explained that 'triple
plating' is a succession of deposits of chrome over nickel over copper, the
copper being plated in multiple light depositions and buffed out to provide
a uniform base surface for ensuring futher clear plating without flaws. The
nickel is always an intermediate coat between the copper and the chrome.
In the case of the grille, Curt indicates that the original metal was 'bead
blasted'. Our examination under 10X magnification indicates that the surface
is raw brass, and that a plating acid bath will suffice to matte out the
brass. We found that simply stripping off the original chrome and nickel
laid bare a perfectly good brass surface needing no re-surfacing. Where
repairs are made on the sides, you will have to abrade out the tooling marks
and then blend in the repair with acid etching.
On the front of the slats, I can confirm that there is clearly a series of
longitudinal abrasions from stroke sanding. The grit used on the stroke belt
was consistent with the grain of the matte finish on the sides, but the
striae are there on the original surface grille we've examined, and they
show through the finish plating.
My recommendation is, after making necessary braize repairs and
straightening, leave the sides of the slats alone as much as possible, then
use a fine grit belt sander to level the front of the slats, perhaps
followed by a 3M abrasive pad. Then double or triple pate with chrome over
nickel.
We have yet to devise a way of replicating the 'fly specks'. That is left to
time and lots of driving, preferably through swampy lagoons.
Allen
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