VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1929-1932 31 Chevy radiator grill

I sent my radiator shell (grill) out to get chrome plated 8 weeks ago. The plater is telling me they are having a hard time with plating the 'stainless steel' shell. The grill Was already in very good shape (and probably didn't need plating), so I didn't see what kind of metal it was made of. What metal are the grills made of?

Hi,
I just took my 30' to have it plated. I was told that some year models used stainless and some used brass. Mine just happen to be brass. They were hoping that it was stainless and said it would have been less work for them. Of course, the brass one is going to cost me about 800.00. Hope this helps.

I never heard of a stainless shell for a Chevrolet. I'll be watching to see what the experts have to say about this one. 1930 & 31 Model A shells are stainless.

See you down the back roads.

The passenger car radiator shells are brass and the truck radiator shells were steel, not stainless. Sounds to me like you fellows sent your radiator shells to your "local" platers. If your plater can't tell the difference between brass, steel and stainless steel you really need to retrieve your radiator shell from them immediately! :eek: :eek:

Also, my "local" chrome shop will plate a 1929-31 radiator shell for around $350, and that would be two stage plating (nickel and chrome, no copper), and a poor quality job at that. :( :( :(

Mine checked and told me that mine was brass. I never stated that "Chevrolet Grilles" were stainless just that he told me some cars were. I am sorry but I am doing this on a limited budget and can't afford to send chrome parts off to another state just to get an estimate. I can only tell you what I was told. I am not a professional chrome plater. He must not really know what he is doing. He only has the contract with Ashley wood heaters and stoves for their chrome plating. I could have sent it to Graves Plating. I am sure you all have heard of them in books and magazines. They come highly recommended by numerous sources. But hey, they just wanted 1000.00 to do it and 475.00 just to do the cowl band. I thought that was just a little more than I wanted to pay.

I come here for help not to be criticized for my choices. I did listen to suggestions from this board and it's members about who to get my wood from. I have cussed every single day since then because of the poor workmanship. I should have gotten mine from the East Coast supplier instead of the other.

Maybe the confusion was caused by the word "model" in your 1st post instead of saying "car"...I don't know ... however I don't think anyone meant to criticize you.

Sorry about the wood work you got. However if you aren't happy with the workmanship of parts recommended by Chatter members you might want to post who did the work for you and the problems with the work in the vendors category so others here won't have to cuss in the future. Businesses change owners sometimes and quality changes.

We (me included) have listed people (check the vendors category) and businesses that did poor work.

I was going to recommend to you the chrome shop that did the great work for my '57....if you are interested they are listed in the Vendors category. You don't have to send them the parts to get an estimate, just a phone call.

Thanks Gator,
The comments directed towards me pretty much ticked me off. I guess you can see that. I have already left my parts because they have so much work, they stay behind. So, I had to get in line. They do great work and I have had them do parts for me before. The men running the shope use to work for Graves Plating and decided to open their own. I was going to list my problems with vendors last night but I got busy. Appreciate your concern. My woodwork started out great and then got very worse towards the end. Of course I had to wait nearly a year on it and that didn't help much.

1930SportCoupe: No one is criticizing you for your choices.....apparently you are not reading my previous posting as intended.

roman601 stated that "The plater is telling me they are having a hard time with plating the 'stainless steel' shell."

You stated: "(I) was told that some year models used stainless and some used brass." And, in your last posting you mentioned; "He must not really know what he is doing."

As I mentioned above the 1929-31 radiator shells were not stainless, and if platers can't tell the difference between stainless steel and brass, or they think that some 1929-31 shells were stainless, then that is a clue that they really don't know what they are doing....(especially in roman61's case since they think that his shell is stainless), and to save wasted money and grief later it is a good idea to take the radiator shell to someone else that does know the difference.

It is a well known fact that local plating shops really are not experts on plating antique car parts, and, most often than not, the job is either not quality, or the parts come back broken or damaged, or the parts are just plain lost. As an example, my local plating shop will plate a 1929-31 radiator shell for $350. That price alone should tell you the lack of quality workmanship that one is going to receive for that low price, since it costs way more than that to do a quality plating job on a 1929-31 radiator shell as you already found out.

Thanks for the reply. He had also told me that Graves Plating would not be getting the small nicks and dents out of my shell like he would and that there would be hours of block sanding on it alone. He knew this because he worked there and they frowned on him spending alot of time on things.
I'll post a pic of it when I get it back to see if it is up to standards.

Is there any way you can do some of the time comsuming prep work yourself to save some $$$. Maybe the shop could strip the old finish off for you and then you could do the ding/small dent repair at home...

I don't know if any of this is possible...just brainstorming here...