There is no easy street to a period finish...
The original grille matte finish is a combination of two separate processes.
The sides of the slats are "raw" brass, without buffing. After forming the
"U" channel the fronts were stroke-sanded but not brought down to a polish.
You will actually see flat spots in the sanding if you look carefully.
Many oldtimers talk about "Butler" finish, but this is really about working
up the finish with substrates of copper plating in round one, followed by
nickel in rounds two (and possibly three). The final 'flash' of chrome is an
extremely thin deposition of metal.
We succeeded in replicating the finish with copper followed by a low sheen
nickel overlain with a thicker shinier nickel. To preserve the conspicuous
matte appearance, my plater lightly hit the sides of the slats with an an
extremely fine grit of sand, and touched each successive base plating with
scotchbrite on the front surfaces. The appearance is approximately accurate,
and the main difference is that the plating baths today are much better than
in times of old, so no matter what you do, the appearance will be a little
brighter. Retouching the finish with abadants per the above the a fair
compensation.
Based on 2000 miles of driving, I can also attest that fly specs, oil
spatter and general crudding help round out the appearance.
If you have a good grille with original surfacing and no dings, I would
recommend thinking about stripping the finish with chromic acid down to raw
brass, hitting the fronts with a proper grit of scotchbrite, and sending out
for thin 'tripple plating' depositions of copper/nickel/chrome. Whether the
intermediate finishing helps accentuate the matte appearance is out for the
jury to decide.
Allen Miller
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