Prep work for chroming

[RonA]

Not sure if I’ve asked this question before but if I have I lost the replies.
My pet project at the moment is restoring a 1934 sports car. & I have already posted some pictures.
The chassis is completed & the engine runs. The rear section of the wooden framework is more or less complete, it only remains to remake the door frames & the front section upto the firewall. I’m having the front wings fitted by a specialist bodywork guy, who is also manufacturing the missing running boards. Although I could possibly have done this myself, the professional has gear I would have had to buy to complete the task making it uneconomic.
My thoughts now are turning to jobs needing to be done to complete the project. One of these are the fold down windscreen stays. These were missing when I bought the kit of parts loosely described as a car.
Fortunately a fellow car owner gave me some copies of the stays he had privately cast.
However, the castings are not the best & have several blow holes which will need to be filled before meeting their ultimate fate of chrome plating.
Has anybody had experience of filling voids before chroming. Suspect lots old bike bits will have holes due to corrosion which require similar treatment?

RonA

 

[frank horton]

RonA,
they look like Bronze ??????.....in the same boat myself........regardless of what is said they are junk as far as plating is concerned but perfect as a pattern for new 1's to be cast....u have got the left and right peices ?.....
getting to find somebody to cast the number u want is the problem.....
a few places I tried would only cast 10 as a min.......that means 20...10 left 10 right........dohhhhhh.
they need to be repaired, I use body filler BUT cleaned up first........my stuff was always rotary wire brushed and then hand rubbed with emery cloth to get the sharp edges and the detail as best poss.......also remember that the casting will shrink a little so u need to add that into the equasion.....perhaps 5%.......remember ur's is a casting of another casting, so double the shrinkage !!!!!!!!!!!!......make sure ur happy with the fit first......adding b/filler to dimensions to get them bigger is OK....
depending on the foundry sometime they like em painted.........my wooden patterns were always painted..........
seeing u live Uuuup north u'll prob find a place to cast new'un's........darn sarf it's more difficult.......I need quite a lot of parts cast........
does the owners club not have any, I'd say they would be a reasonably fast mover.......they always crack and the chrome is usualy no good after years of service.......originals even then would be monkey metal so not re-chromable sucsesfully....

good luck let us know how u get on.........oh, mine's a 1926 Citroen C4 car converted to a pick up....aka WW2........... Frank

 

[frank horton]

dont know how I got the extra photo's.....sorry............

 

[500e]

Hell of a re build Frank

 

[RonA]

“they look like Bronze ??????.....in the same boat myself........regardless of what is said they are junk as far as plating is concerned but perfect as a pattern for new 1's to be cast...”
Not really the news I was hoping to hear. Yes I have left & right. I was suspicious when I got them for free. Looks like a line to the owners club spares guy might be coming up. Failing that making wooden patterns using what I have for dimensions & have several cast, the owners club is always looking to source spares. Next purchase may be a casting rule. All additional work I could really do without.

RonA

 

[Seadog]

You're probably aware of Abbey, but if not, here's a link to them - http://www.abbeycasting.co.uk