Hello, I have a 30U roadster and the 4 top support bars that are mounted on the rear deck are currently pot-metal colored, which is the way they were when I bought the car 4 years ago. My question is, would these bars have originally been just polished-up pot metal, nickel plated, or chrome plated? I assume these were originally nickel plated, but I don't know for sure.
What about the interior door handles? What was the finish type on those? Mine are currently just pot metal-colored.
Any help is appreciated.
Mine look like they are chrome and they are all original as far as I know. They were never redone in the 53 years that the car has been in the family.
Ted
Make sure what you have before you start plating if you want the car to remain authentic. The rule of thumb for Plymouths prior to about 1938 is: Interior 'silverware' is nickel plated,exterior is chrome plated. You can tell on a good piece if it's nickel by cleaning with a cream polish and your cloth should go black. Chrome does not come off nearly as much if at all. In fact if you have polished chrome in the last month,nothing really comes off except the dirt/smog. Nickel however will 'bleed' every week. I put a good paint polish like McGuier's TECH 2 on nickel to stop it from oxidizing. You can go through nickel if you polish it too much. (While we're at it: headlight reflectors are silver plated. And it is VERY thin. DO NOT polish with a metal polish. You will go right through to the brass. Seen it done. Clean with a good glass cleaner like SPRAY NINE glass and stainless steel cleaner from NAPA. It will not dissolve any metal platings. Generally speaking rear lamp bucket's interiors on Plymouths and Dodges are not plated. To brighten up the lamp I spray the interior with 'chrome paint'. You can get a really good rattle can of chrome like paint now and it really brightens up the rear lamps. Because it's inside out of the weather it stays pretty well.)