The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Interiors Dash grill painting....

I have a 1950 Chevy 1/2 ton. Question is if the entire dash grill and glove box door were painted solid or were the chrome ribs exposed?? Mine is totally solid gray and I believe it may have been painted over by a previous owner. I would like the ribs to show chrome if that's the way it was originally.

If anyone has a pic of their grill correctly painted I would appreciate it.

Thanks,

Spot

This is about what your 50's grille looked like when it left the factory.

My grille

Hard to tell in the pic but it appears that the entire dash grill was painted solid. Correct? Seems weird since it's chrome underneath the paint. Why would they paint over it and not let the chrome show through?

It also appears that the raised ribs might be painted a lighter color.....it's hard to tell.

Thanks for sending the pic!

Spot

The grille was not chrome, just painted steel, there was a stainless steel bar on the top and bottom of the grille. The glovebox door was stainless 47-51. It was painted the same as the grille leaving the top and bottom stainless showing to match the bars on the grille.

if your really courious about it you can soak it in a pan of brake fluid and the old paint will just fall off revealing what ever is under it the process takes about a week but will not harm the metal and dont beleive it will affect the chrome either "i used this on old plasic models to strip laquer and enamel paints off with no damage to the plastic"

The glove box door on my 49 ain't stainless and neither are the top and bottom bar on the radio grille. If they are then I have this real neat magnet which sticks to stainless.

Steel is steel! stainless or not. I stripped mine and it was just plain steel the top and bottom pieces are stainless on mine

Steel is steel but magnets won't stick to most (almost all) stainless.

Does the magnet stick better to the back of the strips compared to the front? Could be because the insert in the back looks to be steel, whereasthe front piece is stainless. The magnet might be sticking to the steel through the stainless. At least that's what I think mine is doing.

There are types of stainless steel that are magnetic.

http://www.physlink.com/Education/AskExperts/ae546.cfm

http://www.azom.com/Details.asp?ArticleID=1140

You're making me dig into work related books now...but if you want an easy test for steel or stainless steel, get yourself a drop of nitric acid. I have no idea where you might find nitric acid, but regardless. Put a drop of nitric acid on a clean metal surface, let it sit for 5 minutes. If it turns black/brown, or stays clear but has a black ring around it, you've got some form of carbon steel. If it doesn't react, it's stainless. It's a can't fail test, but good luck finding nitric acid, I don't think Wal-mart carries it.

I have learned something new here. I just went around the house with a magnet to all the known stainless steel things in the house. I honestly did not know (most) stainless wasn't magnetic. thanks for the extended education guys, apparently old dogs can learn new tricks.