Platers! Help!

I found this pair of 1950 Mercury Monterey garnish moldings a while back, one ok and one with some very light pitting in the shiny finish, which I thought was stainless, since a magnet does not stick to it. So, on the back side of the rolled edge, I 400 grit wet sanded , and a little scotch brite pad, till the pits were gone, then figured I would compound and wheel it bright again, and holy ****, it shines like br***! So I hit it with polishing compound and a cloth wheel and now it is very shiny br***. Now, the mounting brackets are spot welded to the molding frame, so it is not made of br***, (or is it?) but what did they use back then that is non magnetic but still pits? This is some kind of plating alchemy.....What say you, platers?

 

Part is likely pot metal. When it was plated it should have been copper plated-nickel plated-chrome plated. What you see is probably the copper. Scott

 

Yeah, my guess is you just wore the plating down to the copper. And I'm fairly certain that Monterey didn't come out until 1951.

 

In 1965 I bought my Great Aunt's 1950 Mercury Monterey, 65,000 miles, pale green, O/D, vinyl roof, gl***pack, skirts and one owner from new. And shiny garnish moldings on all window interiors. I had to sell it when I went in the Navy, and I still kick my own a$$ twice a day. These garnish moldings are obviously stamped, so I'm thinking they are chromed stainless, hence the yellow br*** layer under the chrome. I just never heard of br*** used there - usually it's copper.

 

Sure enough, there was Monterey in '50, I didn't realize that. If those pieces are stamped, they may have been stamped out of br*** too. The headlight bezels on my smashed '50 baby Lincoln were stamped br*** and chromed, they crack really, really easy.

Stainless is especially hard to chrome, and why would you chrome it? That's the whole point, I highly doubt they're chromed stainless.

I worked at a plating/polishing shop for years, I heard so many times about how Ford chromed their stainless and blah blah blah but I never saw a piece that was chromed and we did a ton of 55-59 Ford and Thunderbird ****.

 

So.....they could be chromed hard br***? Hmmm, can br*** be spot welded? the attachment ears are spot welded to the molding. If true, they very well could be br***.
Imagine what they would look like if I buffed off all the chrome and left them as polished br*** moldings? Man, I need a beer.......thanks, bro.

 

Br*** can't be welded but can be brazed. Friend of mine built a '34 Dodge, discovered that the headlight buckets were chrome plated br***.

 

I need some pics, but it sounds like your garnish moulding is plated br***. It is most likely nickle/chrome over br***. you polished the pitting out of the nickel, as the chrome layer is much too thin to polish anything out of it without cutting through. The original chrome layer could have been wiped off before you got them when someone was trying to clean them up with something abrasive.

I see a lot of br*** in vintage British cars, especially Jaguar E-Types. Many times a single piece is made of br*** and steel, and they are mated together by brazing (or soldering.) The spot weld could be a brazed spot done by a machine, but I couldn't tell until I was working on it.

The good news is br*** is easier to work with than steel, and it will not have hidden rot coming from the underside like plated thin steel stampings often do. (like the grill pieces on my 48 Chevy)

 

Makes sense to me. I will try to send some jpegs out to you, plus I have some other garnish moldings I might want to have plated (steel). Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Yes, my molding is partial ferrous, as the attachment ears are chromed and are magnetic, and those "spot welds" might very well be mechanical brazes.