Alan,
Once again I have to refer back to my old metal man Charlie Hall of Tucson,
Arizona.
Charlie taught me that pot metal, once corroded can be extremely difficult
and expensive to repair. Those little pits that you see in the surface can
turn
into very large craters once the part is stripped of its chrome. Once this
is discovered the process to fill and repair the pits can quickly exceed the
value of economical repair. One process involves multiple layers of copper and
a lot of filling and buffing which is labor intensive - read expensive!
Pot metal is great for the manufacturer since it is cheap to produce and in
its original cast state polishes and chromes up beautifully. The problem is,
is that our cars were not meant to last 50 years and then be restored. Brass
would have been a better but much more expensive option as the base metal for
the originals which is probably why quite a number of the quality reproduction
parts are now cast in brass versus pot metal e.g., the boot hinges and the
early door strikers.
I once took a rather large section of a Packard Grill to Charlie for repair
and after it was all said and done, he said that we would have been money ahead
to have recast the pieces in brass, discarding the originals. This being
said, the bottom line is to fine an expert chrome shop that specializes in pot
metal repair, they're out there so find a good shop and then leave it to the
professionals.
I believe that I've seen an advertisement in one of the British car magazines
for a shop in England that specializes in pot metal repair and restoration.
Cheers,
Curt Arndt - AH Concours Committee
Carlsbad, CA
'55 BN1, '60 AN5 :{)
In a message dated 11/25/04 9:41:58 AM Pacific Standard Time,
Alan@nfahc.co.uk writes:
<< Hi folks.
I have the correct locking door handle for the left side of my Longbridge
BN4. Not surprisingly it has a number of small circular 'pit' marks through
the chrome and into the underlying base metal. The handle and body appear
to be made of 'pot' or 'monkey' metal which I believe is unsuitable for
brazing (low melting point?).
Does anyone have a method for restoring the surface of the metal before it
is re-chromed?
If you guys haven't worked out a method I guess it can't be done ;^{
Cheers..........AlanB >>
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