Stainless cleaning/buffing

[Dave C.]

Just got my 66 back from painter. Looks awesome and I started to replace the visor and latch hardware on the windshield. The windshield trim looks good, just dirty. Is there a product you reccomend for cleaning the stainless around the glass?

[Dennis A.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

Dave...
There are three levels of polishing stainless, Autoslo metal polish to buffing with white rouge, to sending them out to be polished, dents removed and flash chrome plated.
I personally like the flash chrome treatment. several shops can do this, one is Dans in Adamsville,Tenn who took over rick applegates business.

[Nick M.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

Dennis

I'm not sure I understand the flash chrome concept. Particularly as it applies to stainless. Can you elaborate? Was all the exterior stainless trim originally flash chromed or just highly polished stainless?

[John M.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

Dennis

I'm not sure I understand the flash chrome concept. Particularly as it applies to stainless. Can you elaborate? Was all the exterior stainless trim originally flash chromed or just highly polished stainless?

flash

flashflashsmack or strike not flashflashsmack or strike


Giving the stainless a quick smack of chrome for an acceptable shine probably seemed a bit more cost effective to GM than hiring workers to hand polish each and every piece of stainless on the Corvette. Do the math; for a single car -- for the entire model year. The piece work polish process would be staggering!

Polished stainless will give off a slightly warm golden hue, while chrome plate will show an icy bluesmacked stainless trim that a restorer has taken a few dents out of, knowingly or unknowingly removed the chrome smack on the repair, and then polished those areas only. Catch it in the right light and it will look like a leopard.

I understand there are very few platers that do smack plating today. Environmental rules, regulations, and the process itself. However, if you find one you can work with and want a nice show-piece; give the stainless an acid bath to strip all the smack chrome, polish it to a high shine, and then smack it with chrome. Sure will be nice and pretty, but alas it will be over restored.




Save the Wave ............... JGM

[Edward B.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

Now I'm learning something - keep this thread going!

[Dennis A.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

John...
excellent reply...I have heard it said, all C1 stainless mouldings were flash chrome plated by the General.

[John H.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

John...
excellent reply...I have heard it said, all C1 stainless mouldings were flash chrome plated by the General.

So were all those on midyears, including wheel covers.

[Randy R.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

It was not possible to polish my 67 trim rings without removing the chrome plating. They were sent to a chrome shop for this. Following a tip on this discussion board, I tried to remove the plating by dunking the rings in a tub of muratic acid. I only got about half a gallon of the acid poured into the tub before the fumes chased me away. This is in a garage with all doors open and the wind blowing. I quickly aborted this idea and sent them to the chrome shop.

Randy

[Nick M.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

John

Thanks for the thorough discription of the process. I' would need to take a typing class before I could type such a lengthy response! All kidding aside, it is very informative and appreciated. Ok, my fingers are tired already!

[Tracy C.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

This is an ole bent up original piece of windshield stainless from a 63. I removed the flash chrome from a 3" spot near the center of the picture. You can see the difference in hue as it changes from the icy blue flash chrome finish on the left to the grayish color of bare stainless in the center then then back again as you get about 1" from the bent section. (from the bend on to the right is just grime)

The difference is most apparent on cloudy days, but a trained eye can spot it any time. Another way to tell is just put a fingerprint on the trim. A flash chrome finish allows the print to wipe off pretty easily, while bare stainless takes quite a bit of rubbing to make it go away.

tc

[Dale M.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

Does anyone have any documentation of just what years and what stainless steel parts were flash or smack chrome. Knowing how the manufacturing process changes from time to time, like other components there must be some variations. I have not seen anything about this in the NCRS Judging and Technical manuals. I am preparing to redo the stainless on my '64, but would like to know about other years and differrent parts of the cars that may have been chromed.

Great Discussion hope someone can provide more details.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

Just got my 66 back from painter. Looks awesome and I started to replace the visor and latch hardware on the windshield. The windshield trim looks good, just dirty. Is there a product you reccomend for cleaning the stainless around the glass?

If the "dirt" you're seeing is accumulated and hardened road film or minerals from washing, you may be able to polish it off. If it's too stubborn to be removed by manual polishing, you can always resort to more severe approaches.

Meguiar's and 3M make several products that would work...I would probably start with 3M Perfect-It II rubbing compound (catalog number 05973). Since this is a fine compound for machine polishing, you won't have to worry about it polishing through your chrome plate when polishing by hand.

[John H.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

Does anyone have any documentation of just what years and what stainless steel parts were flash or smack chrome. Knowing how the manufacturing process changes from time to time, like other components there must be some variations. I have not seen anything about this in the NCRS Judging and Technical manuals. I am preparing to redo the stainless on my '64, but would like to know about other years and differrent parts of the cars that may have been chromed.

Great Discussion hope someone can provide more details.

Dale -

Generally speaking, all C1/C2 stamped polished stainless trim pieces were flash-chromed, and most stamped aluminum trim pieces (like rocker moldings) were clear-anodized.

Tracy Crisler may have more detailed info - he's done a LOT of stainless restoration.

[Tracy C.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

John, I don't have any GM drawings or processing documents, but when i was doing this for money, everything I did had flash chrome that I needed to remove first. The thing about flash or smack chrome we need to remember is that it is only about .0001 to .0003 thick. (one - three tenthousandths of an inch) It is easy to overlook something that thin.

I tried to get the 63/4 judging manual updated to address it when we did the 5th revison, but the presence of the chrome can be difficult to positively detect on a newly restored/buffed piece of trim if no other chromed pieces are adjacent to it.

I only bring the topic up when someone is having trouble buffing a piece or when I think a person might have a goal of keeping the trim looking nice over the long haul.

A person with a short term goal to restore and flip a car or part will likely skip the flash chrome step all together.

tc

[Paul J.]

Re: Stainless cleaning/buffing

John, I don't have any GM drawings or processing documents, but when i was doing this for money, everything I did had flash chrome that I needed to remove first. The thing about flash or smack chrome we need to remember is that it is only about .0001 to .0003 thick. (one - three tenthousandths of an inch) It is easy to overlook something that thin.

I tried to get the 63/4 judging manual updated to address it when we did the 5th revison, but the presence of the chrome can be difficult to positively detect on a newly restored/buffed piece of trim if no other chromed pieces are adjacent to it.

I only bring the topic up when someone is having trouble buffing a piece or when I think a person might have a goal of keeping the trim looking nice over the long haul.

tc

Tracy,

In Post #4 John Mattson explains that a guy from Action Bumper told him the difference between "flash" chrome and "smack or strike" chrome. Is that explanation correct in your opinion or through your experience? If there is a difference, which is on the stainless on our cars?

Paul