Making an old radiator grill look good

qmdv

qmdv

Well-known member
I have an original 32 radiator grill. It looks like it has some sort of plating. Is it nickel or chrome or ?. It is very tarnished but no rust. Finns are all very straight. What Is the best way get it shined up or at least close.

Thinking of Never Dull or the like
 
qmdv said:
I have an original 32 radiator grill. It looks like it has some sort of plating. Is it nickel or chrome or ?. It is very tarnished but no rust. Finns are all very straight. What Is the best way get it shined up or at least close.

Thinking of Never Dull or the like
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Can you post some pics?
 
Will not look forward to taking that grill apart, getting it stripped then putting it all back together. And the lack of plating plants is another problem
 
I've done this a number of times and it works. Try soaking it overnight in Coca-Cola, the original coke. Find a shallow containor it will fit in and go get about $20 worth of 2 liter bottles and fill it up, let it set overnight and rinse with water. Then polish as desired. I don't think Nev-r-dull works well on anything but bare metal but a good auto or chrome polish coupled with good old fashioned elbow grease should produce deisred results.
 
Forgot to mention if it doesn't work as desired you're only out the cost of the Coke, but it certainly worked well for me, particularly on a set of tarnished and crusty hubcaps from a '49 Nash. I was amazed.
 
The grill was not originally plated. They were painted. Do you have an original grill? Most aftermarket ones were plated. I might just run some fine sandpaper over the bars and paint them.
Original bars are easy enough to remove. Gently pry them up from the cross support bars and bend them sideways and get an end out and then the other.
 
It is an original grill. I did not know it was stainless. I have a container to soak it in. I think I will find some very fine steal wool and try that before I buy 8 gallons of Coke. I cannot afford that much Jack. How about 1000 grit wet dry
 
The only stainless is the outer band. I would not sand it. Just some polishing should bring it back. I was talking about the bars when I mentioned sanding.
 
Andy said:
The only stainless is the outer band. I would not sand it. Just some polishing should bring it back. I was talking about the bars when I mentioned sanding.
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So the the vertical bars are plated?? What with?
 
Tim Ayers said:
Jack Daniels & coke is what he is referring to.
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I'm interested to hear your results as we have(2) 32 fords, a 5 window and a 3 window. I totally didn't get the "recycle" the coke with your Jack post. My brain went immediatley to an automobile jack and "recycle" and it didn't make sense. JD and Coke is not part of my physce as I learned the hard way many years ago it has the boomerang effect.
 
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