Technical my cadillac sombrero caps are rusting?

bought a 1950 mercury and these wheel covers came with 2 are ok and 2 are rusty, did they chrome plate some where others are stainless? thanks!

 

the 6 I have are all S/S

 

these are 2 of mine!

 

hope they clean up and the skirts hide them because these a $$ new!

 

put coke cola on em and scrub with a tinfoil wad, then wash and wax the hell out of them.

 

Check to see if GM recalled them.

 

SS will rust if metal shavings are left on it and they begin to rust. 0000 steel wool will probably take it all off.

 

got some coke and foil, steel wool 000,0000! anyone else?

 

Br*** wool if you can get it. Steel wool can embed itself into stainless and then rust. If I cleaned with some kind of steel wool, I'd want to use something oily or soapy. SOS or Brillo maybe, with plenty of water. Then wax.

 

I used 000steel wool and WD40 to clean the front chrome suspension on my coupe that was installed in the early eightys that include the SuperBell axle , 4 bars, Posies super slide spring and brake parts.The secret is to shake up the WD40 real good before spraying on a small amount of steelwool and clean. Hope this works for you...........................................

 

I have a set of 52's which are starting to rust and a set of 53's which are Stainless = no rust ....The 52's ( top ) are NOT Stainless

 

Yes, the 52 and earlier sombreros came in two versions, stainless and chrome plated steel. All 53's were stainless. I'm not sure exactly which year they switched over, but I'm guessing '51 or 52. The same is true for the fender and door moldings, both steel and stainless versions were made.

 

My 47s were chrome plated.

 

that explains it, those 2 are going on wall! time to find 2 more stainless steel ones and knock out the dents! thanks guys!

 

........................"Garage Art", That's where all of my "unusable" parts wind up.

 

Soak them in wood bleach , aka
Oxalic acid. That will remove the rust and not bother the chrome and there's no scratches from foil or steel wool.
Then put a good coat of wax on them and maintain it.

That will at least last you till you find stainless ones and they will look better hanging on the wall.

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&ke...vptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_3w25x96hsc_b

 

http://www.barkeepersfriend.com/

 

I believe that was done as part of the Korean War effort, Ever Heard the expresion "Korean Chrome"/ The Chrome plating was thinner to conserve materials. I am ***uming the same probably applies to Sombreros too. I have two stainless and two plated.

 

My set of 4 like yours are rusty as well!

 

I don't think it was a Korean war era problem. As a kid I remember the hubcaps on our '49 rusting that way. They were pre-Korean war manufacture.

 

worth a try!

 

I dragged in a '47 sedanette from the Nevada desert a couple years ago that still had a set of sombreros in the trunk. The mice had used them for a toilet, and therefore they were quite rusty. Definitely plated steel on them.

 

FYI, the 48-52 sombreros came in two (actually 3 versions, photos attached.) One type has a single hole in the mounting cup, the second type has two holes in the cup. They take different rim offsets, they will fit either, but will tend to fly off if used on the wrong rim. The third type has no hat and has the spider clips around the perimeter. I've been told by several expert these were '52 only. I've always thought they were aftermarket due to the thinner gauge of stainless, but now tend to believe they were '52 only and are hard to find.

 

I was wondering the same thing. I have 2 that I'd like to clean up before I sell them but, I don't want to damage them instead of polish them.


Dustin

 

great info and photos help greatly! nice thing about skirts is run the plated ones for now on rear of my mercury since they barely show until replacements can be found! these will be modified to fit newer wheels and have been lucky being sent tons of info for upgrading them.

 

The shallow type is '51-'52. There's also a 16'' early style as used pre-'49 .