I’m not sure what the finish is on my truck’s hood ornament, but I ***ume it’s br***? I don’t think this is how they came from the factory, since other 1940 chevy hood ornaments I’ve seen are chrome. So if this is br***, how did it come to be? Did someone plate it at some time, if br*** plating is a thing? In any case, can anyone confirm what the finish is, and if it’s possible to buff it out to a decent shine?
Looks like br***. Can you drill it underneath to determine if it is solid br*** or plated pot metal? Br***o is the best br*** polish and will produce a mirror shine with the requisite amount of rubbing. Just ask any soldier.
That does look like oxidized br***. I might even suggest leaving it as is. instead of polishing it and making it shiny.
Just a guess, I have a extra set of chrome trim rings for my speedometer & gauges. The chrome was so pitted & in poor condition, I sanded the chrome off & they are br*** underneath. Br*** was a cheap metal that accepted chrome well.
Ah okay, so it may have come from the factory as chrome plated br*** but somewhere down the line somebody sanded off the chrome? So then what are the dark spots where it looks like the finish has worn off? Can those spots be polished to a bright br*** finish?
Again just speculation, they used br*** at the time it was cheap they could pour it then was soft enough to work with. Get the fine details engraved in it. Same time I would only imagine they have different levels of quality of br***. Since yours was not meant to be a finished br***, just a base .... it is not the best quality. So depends on your expectations on how well it will polish out. ..... Might be a few pores or imperfections .... it was meant to be covered with chrome. The chrome process is like painting a car. Getting a good solid base to work with. The br***. Then you would spray a base coat of primer .... something you can work with to get a good layer of paint. I think the chrome is a 2 step or more process, they work with the base metal, then dip it with a 1rst coat of something that they can sand & get all imperfections out .... then do the chrome dip. You can google & read about it. The dark stuff looks like the prep coat before the actual chrome to me. Meaning it still needs a lot of sanding by hand. I spent hours sanding my small trim rings .... I was laid up & could not do anything else. I spent a week or 2 in front of the television sanding the chrome bezels. Not sure I would have the patience today.
A lot of after-market stuff was made of br*** as it was easier to cast than using a die cast method. If you want to get rid of the chrome plating, don't sand it off. You can reverse-plate it using a battery charger and the right chemicals, and then you don't have to fix all the spots where you have ground down the base metal.
hard to tell from the picture, but is this area (yellow circle) chrome plated still? or is it just oxidized different from the rest of it? btw, the brown finish could be what is known as "patina". Some guys pay extra for that.
Looking at a broken one on Ebay for what seems like way too much money it looks to be die cast. I'm inclined to think that the Br*** one is aftermarket. Maybe even being a replacement hood ornament that was sold by JC Whitney in the 50's or early 60's when they had page after page of them in their catalogs. I don't think I would be sanding on that one though.
My '37 truck used die cast. My broken broken one is the same material as the e-bay piece. Compare yours to the GM one and you can see yours is not quite as refined, no center strip going down the front, and corners of the decorations are not as sharp. Aftermarket replacement.
Maybe someone in shop cl*** cast a br*** one using an original as a pattern. High schools used to have things like small foundries.
I repaired old weathered and broken hood ornaments for a '36 Willys and broken '36 Pontiac hood ornaments. After repairing them, Bondoing and sanding them to perfection, I sent them to a company in Washington state that cast custom bronze belt buckles for companies to give out to customers as premiums. I also still have several of their buckles I got working in the oil industry back then. They did a great job, were surprisingly inexpensive, and I got quality bronze ornaments that chromed spectacularly. Unfortunately they have gone out of business. Might find a company that picked up the business? https://www.anacortestoday.com/blog/2020/04/23/recalling-anacortes-br***-works/ https://www.goskagit.com/anacortes/...cle_6558b7be-d4c1-11ed-bde5-4f58a8bc8698.html
Shame that Anacortes Br*** Works is gone. Back when it was running I could have taken the small international Ferry as a walk on p***enger here in Canada and walked off in Anacortes, Washington!
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