Dear IML members,
Chris Hawkins and I went to Southern bumper here in Atlanta today and the answer was yes! The stainless steel on my car was flash-chromed. From my experience with sanding and buffing out repairs on multiple parts I know that this applied to all of the exterior stainless on this car. I have found no exceptions so far. I was so elated to know that I was not crazy, well not as much crazy anyway! I will just use a hand applied creme metal polish and use as many original parts as possible. Fortuntely most of my trim is in excellent condition and I will just have to live with some of the finer scratches.
I had a few parts that were extremely nice but had been hit by an orbital sander as they were adjacent to poorly executed bodywork. When I took 600 grit wet and dry I immediately noticed a difference in the color of the metal. White/blue to yellow/grey. The parts polished beautifully but didn't look the same. The guy I spoke with at Southern Bumper said to strip all the chrome off with muratic acid and buff the parts. However, the flash-plating is so thin that it doesn't take any more work to just buff it off. This though leaves chrome in the recesses and if you only repair a small spot you end up with a piece of trim that is two colors. Brilliant but of different depth and color. So, now I have a few parts that need to be rechromed.
Southern Bumper will not plate stainless. They say that nickel will not adhere to stainless so the chrome was applied directly to the stainless. Apparently this is a specialty process. Anyone know a good specialist? Of course I didn't already have enough stuff to search for and enough chrome to replate. I called a few local plating shops and some asked why while others just told me it was not something they did. Great huh? Got any ideas on this new conundrum? I left my six pot metal headlight brow pieces which were estimated at $285 for restoration. Gosh, only 40 more pieces of pot metal to go....
The technician at Southern Bumper told me that even Ford was known to flashchrome stainless. It aparently is uncommon but not unheard of. He should know as they were working on everything from Edsel grills to Buick ornaments. Let me know if anyone hears of a plating shop that will do stainless. I have 6 pieces so far that I have restored and would like to have done.
Richard Burgess
'60 "LeCrown" Sedan
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