The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot '60-'66 Trucks 64-66 grills aluminum or stainless?

I have a 64 C30 that came with the factory "chrome" grill. It is in great shape, except it is tarnished a bit. I have tried to polish it with various compounds and buffers to no avail. Does anyone know if these were aluminum, or stainless? I'm not sure how to get this thing to shine again.

I have an original that is aluminum. It too is oxidized and a couple of the mounting tabs are broken. I too would like to know if these can be refurbished and if so what are the tricks to making it work.

If it is aluminum, it can be restore professionally. Here's a couple of links to an outfit that does it. One is a magazine article and the other is a link to the company that does the work. If you want to try it yourself perhaps the steps shown will help:

http://www.rodandcustommagazine.com/howto/86258/index.html
http://www.kingoftrim.com/

Kerry3, if your's is truly chrome steel and the chrome is shot, it's probably not going to come back with polishing. Once the chrome goes away it allows the nickel underneath to tarnish and the only repair is to strip and replate it. To determine if it's chrome steel, simply see if a magnet sticks to it.

If it's really stainless, you might just need to try a more aggresive polish. The great feature of stainless is it goes all the way through to the other side, so you can just keep polishing until it's shiny enough. I've had good luck with Semichrome when polishing stainless. I'm not familiar with 64's specifically, so I don't know if these grilles were ever offered in stainless.

Anodized aluminum was what i had read that they were made of.

The grill I have from a 64 is aluminum. That's not to say the one you have is not chrome, time to get out the magnet.

The links Mark provided are good. I looked at the Rod & Custom article and it is good but it glosses over the polishing. I've polished a few pieces of aluminum and it takes time and patience, not to mention some good wheels. The second link has some good information on keeping it looking good.

A stainless steel grill would be something to have, if it exist.

Larry

The grill I have is definately not chrome! It is the original grill, but it does not buff like other aluminums that I have had experience with.......maybe because it is anodized? I just found an interesting article about anodized aluminum. Hope this link works......http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/665.cfm

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/665.cfm

revised link

Nice link Kerry. Draino and clear coat. Outstanding!

Sweet!

.... isn't the Stovebolt a nice place to be. Folks who have either been there and done it.....or those who can find the info for us those of us that can't seem to.
Thanks guys. I learn something new most every day.

I'll have to try that on my grille, if I can find a big enough tub! On the anodized "Custom" side moldings from my 64 Suburban, I knocked off the anodized coating with a wire brush in a die grinder, and some 150 grit paper. I then progressed through grits until I got the shine back. I've polished them once so far since last winter, and with no coating, they've held up well. Look like chrome!

I use aluminum wheel etching cleaner by Eagle 1 in the silver bottle it works the best I have seen but be careful of it, it is just like the stuff I used back in the day to clean aluminum semi dump beds, wear a mask of some kind because it will eat the enamel off your teeth (seriously)

Couldn't a wooden frame be made, then put some sort of heavy plastic sheeting fastened to it to make a trough?

Todjob2000, thanks for the tip on the Eagle One. That made me remember that I used some of that many years ago on some Mach 8 Cragar aluminum rims, I swear it is uncut muratic acid. Followed up with polishing compound and then buffing compound. A lot of work but they ended up looking like new.