Its now time to tackle the chrome on the side windows. I tried some chrome polish and 0000 steel wool, but its clear to me that they are too pitted. With a complete repaint coming and completely refurbished trim for the rest of the car (thanks Don) I can’t leave the chrome on the wing windows and rear quarter windows less than perfect.
My problem is the I have perfect original undamaged glass all the way around and am concerned about breaking it while trying to remove before sending the pieces out for re-chroming.
Any suggestions?
Also if any of you have recommendations on a good chrome re-plater in So Cal, I’m looking.
The vent window frame has been reproduced. This is the big cast part the part that wraps the glass is stainless. The vent windows are easily removed from the frame. The rear windows are a bit tougher to do… The frame at the front is chrome. The trim at the top and back that wrap the glass are stainless. There is a procedure to remove the glass that is outlined n the factory service manual. I didn’t have the tools so I used a razor blade and cut the adhesive and then tapped the frame away using a piece of solid oak and a lot of TLC. Looking back, I would recommend just buying the best A grade used parts. The chrome plating is pretty expensive, possibly more than buying good used parts.
I recently had my wing window frames rechromed for B3Cat and did the same for BBCat. I chose not to purchase the repros because I’ve been told that the fit isn’t good. For those going the rechrome route, I paid $175 each (IIRC) for the wing window frames. One thing to be aware of, if rechroming is that there is a slight depression at the lower leading corner of the wing window frame that can disappear if the frame is pitted and needs lots of smoothing. Most people won’t notice it but it’s just something to consider.
As I look closer at the assemblies, on the vent windows the stainless that the glass is attached to looks good. I only need to deal with the chrome frame that it attaches to, which is the front and bottom. It looks like the chrome parts separate from the pivoting window easily.
On the rear quarter windows, a little tougher but the same situation. The stainless is fine, just the chrome that needs to be redone, so I guess I will need to carefully disassemble these to separate the chrome and get them re-plated.
I’d prefer to avoid repro parts when possible, my pitting is not bad so I don’t think they will have to polish them too much. I’ll look in to grade A used. but it appears that WCCC doesn’t have them in stock.
I was discussing why some of my parts came back so rounded off and the plater told me that when they strip the chrome, copper, and nickle off the zinc or aluminum casting they find erosion and oxidization that hadn’t popped through to the surface. They have to sand down those areas until they get to good metal. I don’t know if this is true but it sounded like it made sense. Any one else ever ask about this?
That is the way a lot of platers do it, but t does not have to be done that way, it’s just quicker.
The correct way is to strip old chrome, drill out old lose material in the pits, copper plate and then fill holes with solder, sand down the solder, copper again and polish until defects are gone, and add the final product. this is how my plater does it without loosing any detail.