1953 Chevy Grille teeth- best way to remove 'plaque'?

I'm in the process of putting a 1953 Chevy grille on my shoebox, and I've got all kinds of extra teeth.

The problem is the teeth look like 'they've never been to the dentist'... lots of pitting (cavities)... And the chrome is peeling...

While saving up for new teeth, I'd like to 'clean up' what I've got for the time being, but I have no idea of the best way to do this.

Grinder with flap disk?
Sand blasting?
Dip them in some sort of chemical?

A magnet does NOT stick to them- are they aluminum, or just really bad pot metal?

Any help or advice is appreciated!

Thanks,
Jake

What does the dentist of the year get?...A little plaque

 

How bad is the pits and peeling? If it's not too bad,I usually clean up pot metal stuff with aluminium wheel cleaner and a brillo pad.. makes it nice and shiny and the brillo pad gets off some of the flaking.. If it's really bad, a wire wheel should do the trick. If you start on them with a grinder, you are probably going to get them out of shape, unless you are really careful.

Brian

 

Thanks Brian... a few of the teeth are really pitted and the chrome is GONE

I'll experiment with the brillo pad and cleaner on the ones that aren't as far gone, and then step it up to the wire wheek

You know, I was really hoping someone would chime in with "just dip them in this magic chemical and they come out good as new"- ha ha

thanks!
Jake

 

SQUIRT SOME fucking toothpaste on them and get to work with a brush.

OI!

 

I rubbed my teeth in my secret place with my sock and they cleaned up nice....



see my teeth....ask willy, he's gotta have an extra sock or two for ya.....

 

Actually, I do kinda remember a car magazine article about some magic solution like you're looking for. Dip the chrome for a while and viola!

I didn't think it could really work, so I don't remember which magazine or the name of the product.

Maybe somebody else saw the article too?

 

sounds like they're pot metal, typically any old chrome plated parts that have pitting and no rust are pot metal.

There really isn't much you can do about the pits or peeling, aside from getting them rechromed $$$. and that might not do much for the pits either.

 

MAny of the cars of the 52-54 era are plaqued with bad chrome-plating on both steel and diecast parts. This is "Korean"-chrome, the result of nickle being a war material and so the typical factory quality triple-plated chrome finish is not Copper-Nickle-Chromium, but only Copper-Chromium. That is why these parts often have a dull cast to them and when the chrome is pitted or broken a green corrosion, the copper oxidizing.

 

I scrounged most of the teeth for my 54. Four came from a wreck I found in the woods, four more came from a salvage yard for $10 each. I went to work with Mother's Chrome Polish and a lot of elbow grease. Once in a while I got one off ebay and two I bought already rechromed from HotRodGirl.com. All in all I had to cull about four of them because of bad pitting but you have to look close to tell the polished ones I kept from the rechromed new ones.