The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Stainless Steel trim that’s pitted???

Well I’ve been working around metal all of my life, me Pop was a metal worker and me brother also and we’ve had fabrication shops and I worked till my retirement as a fabricator, welder and inspector at a government accelerator lab where 90% of everything is SS, much of it exposed to the elements.
I was over at my buddy’s garage today and we were looking at the bowtie/Chevrolet hood emblem on his ’50. I noticed it was all full of pits like you would see on a chromed part and that’s what I though it was. He said, “oh no, that’s stainless.” So I sayz, “oh no mon ami, stainless don’t pit like that.” So of course we both reach for the magnet and guess what, it’s stainless!
Now that’s a first for me, never saw any that did that and I just can’t figure what would cause that.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Denny:
The easiest way to get pitting in stainless trim is to have it in a shop where there is grinding of steel, and the steel particles get on the stainless. If it gets wet, or if the steel particles are hot enough to embed in the stainless (its melting point is less than steel), then it will form pits, as you describe. Take a guess how we know this. And it gets worse as it sits longer and longer in humid conditions.

Non-magnetic stainless seems to be more prone to this problem than the magnetic 400 series stainless, at least in our experience.

Mar-Ktech

There seems to be some opinion, on another forum, that the AD hood emblem was pot metal. That would make more sense by the way the piting looks, again, I've never seen SS pit this way.
Mine is like brand new and I always thought it was chrome plated pressed steel because I see what look like draw markes on the edges where the metal was drawn over a die. Now that the subject came up I checked it with a magnet and mines non-magnetic also. So it's either SS or a chromed die casting. With out takeing it off it is really difficult to tell what it's made of. It appears that the front hood stiffener or brace needs to come off to get to the four clutch head screws and I taint ready for that now. I tried last night, had to lay on my back across the radiatore with the hood down, that taint the most comfortable position for an old man.
I was hoping that someone would chime in who has had the emblem off the hood during painting and let us know just what we're looking at on the dark side of the emblem.
Denny Graham

Denny,
They made three different emblems. Earliest were die-cast, then a stamped steel that was chrome plated, then the stamped stainless.

Bob

wasn't there a chrome shortage during and after the Korean Conflict? cheap [low chrome] SS was used back then as an alternative to chromed pot metal

SS pitting isn't unusual with low grades of it, especially with bleaching chems, pulp mills deal with it regular ... happens in marine applications too ... someone may also have tried to clean the emblem at some point with steel wool which transfers the iron to the SS surface [like welding splatter]

Bill

In early 1949, the front hood emblem was changed from die-cast to chrome-plated steel. Was there a stainless front hood emblem at some time between 1949 and 1953?

The 1954/55 front hood emblem was completely different design and was stainless steel.

Yes Tim you can see a cut-away of two styles for '54 in sec. 11, sheet 8.00 in the Assemblly manual. Looks like the series 5000 trucks had a die cast emblem
Both of the ones in question here are on 1950's. If I had a stubby clutch head driver about a half inch long I think I might be able to get at the screws.
DG

Denny,

Here are two sizes of 54/55 front hood emblems. They are both stainless steel. I am not sure what might have been the material for the the third size listed in the FAM.

My question was about earlier Advance-Design front hood emblems being stainless steel.

The 1953-1955 hood side emblems were of the same design and were chromed die-cast metal.

Tim

In Jim Carters catalog, he notes that the hood emblem in 48 "is still diecast", and early 49 it becomes chrome plated steel, and finally notes in 1953 that the emblem is now stainless. I have an original hood emblem that is stainless, I am diligently working to preserve the mounting brackets, it still has the clutch head screws.
Mike

FWIW... the orginial hood emblem on my 53 is STAINLESS STEEL and still shines like a new baby's butt.

Here is a pic, of course the bowtie and the CHEVROLET have been repainted Emblem