Neal:
I have this gold lettering on my 1955 Desoto Sportsman. In my case,
and I would think yours too...the lettering is anodized, the color does not go
through and through, but it a nice layer on the top, that is to say a thicker
layer that most places do today. My brother owns a business that
does car/home window tinting, striping, auto body massage, and other related
things. One of the other things that he does for car dealerships is the
gold anodizing that you are referring to. When I used to work with him
back in the late 90s, we did this on a lot of the luxury type import cars that
didn't come stock with the gold lettering, and the dealership's customers wanted
to upgrade to this look with a car that they could drive off the lot TODAY,
rather than waiting for one that came equipped with this. I have done this
process on a lot of cars....and it takes very little time, less than a half
hour.
You should be able to find someone who does this pretty easily. I
know that in my area, there are a lot of guys who do this kind of thing, but
their primary business is something else, like window tinting, striping,
etc. If you can't find anyone listed in your phone book, call around to
some car dealerships in your area and ask them who they use to tint and stripe
their used cars that they touch up before selling.
Hope this helps.
Teresa Smith
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, February 16, 2005 9:10
AM
Subject: IML: gold anodizing (?) on '59
door sill plate inserts
One of the many tasks that my restorer has assigned to me is to
get all the Aquitania's stainless and aluminum trim polished. Two of the
pieces are the front door sill plate inserts, which appear to be gold
anodized. They are about 2" wide by 16" long, have a raised crown and
"Imperial" in script lettering on a recessed black painted background.
The passenger side is in okay shape (but not worthy of the restoration); the
driver's side really needs polishing and painting.
The plating company
said he couldn't do the anodizing, but could brass-plate them or do them in
14-carat gold. The examples of other stuff (non-automotive) he'd done
didn't come close to the correct color. I don't know anything about gold
anodizing. These pieces are very light, so I guess they're
aluminum. The raised crown and "Imperial" are dull and scratched, but
the entire piece seems to be this gold-ish color, i.e. when I scratch the back
side, no regular aluminum color shows. Is this some special aluminum
alloy that is a gold color through and through, which could be polished like
the larger silvery aluminum sill plates and come out nice and shiny, though in
gold? Then my restorer could mask the crown and the lettering and paint
the rest black. Has anyone else had this done, and what are my
options?
Thanks in advance for the group's thoughts.
Neal
Herman
1959 Imperial Crown 4-door Southampton "Aquitania"
1966 Imperial
Crown 4-door "Miss Dorothy"
et al.
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