Chrome Plating a 63 Cadillac Grill???

Hello and Good Morning, I Just have a quick question can the grill on my 63 Cadillac be chromed or will it fall a part. A chrome guy said he would not do it. I looked in to unique chrome and they said it might be to hard to get in the small spaces. They use a spray gun and think it's a bit tight. I'm just not sure of how or what to do.

 

anyone know ???

 

Someone chromed that grill before it went on the car. I'm sure someeone can do it now. Go buy a Hemmings Motor News. There are all kinds of chrome platers out there.

BUT, it won't be cheap. If you are looking for the CASO way out, there isn't one. Good luck!

 

I've seen them powder coated "almost chrome".

 

its some sort of pot aluminum.. cadillac says it stainless steel.. my buddy had his polished.

 

I don't know nearly enough about the grill to give any advise on it. What is it made of? Can it come apart any more? Was it chromed originallly, or was it polished stainless, or anodized aluminum, something else?

If it is pot metal, it would have been plated originally, but it was a brand new casting then, and didn't need detailed polishing and filling to restore hard to reach areas and get rid of rot. Big difference. Some parts do not lend themselves well to replating; especially detailed parts with recessed areas. In reality, I don't know of any old car parts that were designed to be rechromed later on down the road.


edit: Curiousity got the best of me and I looked at some detailed pics of a 63 Caddy grill. It looks like the same grill construction as a 59 Caddy (which I have 1st hand experiance with which is aluminum slats, horizontal and vertical. They were originally anodized separatley, then riveted(?) together into a grill ***embly. I could be off though.

***uming I am correct in the above statement; if you want to restore the grill properly, it needs to come apart completely, so that each slat can be refinished individually, whether plated or reanodized, then re***embled. This would get expensive to say the least, but that's Caddilac for you. I can say that putting a show chrome finish on the entire grill ***embly would look absolutly stunning.

 

Seems to me the 63-64s we had, that grille is a cast pot metal of some sort. I don't know why you couldn't replate it if the casting is in good shape, but it may be difficult to get a really high quality finish on it, very labor intensive.