chrome grill

[nitaat54]

Hi all, just wondering what the Austin A40 grill is made of, is it cast iron, and can

you get it re-chromed, any ideas as how to make it look a bit better.

[PJS]

All of the grilles on ‘our’ cars are made from an aluminium/zinc alloy marketed under the name Mazak, but also, confusingly known as Zamak.

It has a tendency to become pitted, and is difficult to re-chrome well. given the pitting.

I have recently seen examples on TV restoration programmes of a form of ‘chrome’ spray, which can be applied to Zamak, and appears to give pretty good results.

Here’s an example of one company that does this: http://www.chromespray.co.uk/

• This reply was modified 3 years, 3 months ago by PJS.

[MikeN]

You can buy automotive “chrome” vinyl wrap. I don’t know if  it’s suitable for this particular application but it’s cheap and there are tutorials on utube on how to apply it.

[PJS]

I found this page from another ‘chrome’ sprayer. https://invictaspraychrome.co.uk/what-we-do

I don’t personally know of anyone who has tried this process, but, having seen it done on a couple of TV restoration programmes to some not very good bits of Mazak metal trim, the results looked very impressive – and certainly cheaper than traditional chrome plating.

[PJS]

I also found this explanation of the ‘Astrachrome’ process

https://astrachrome.co.uk/en/what-we-do/

and

https://astrachrome.co.uk/en/faq/

As I say, I can neither recommend, nor discourage, use of the process – it would be interesting to see if anyone else within the club or beyond can offer any personal insight – but it does look to be worthy of investigation.

[nitaat54]

thank you all, food for thought

 

[Author]

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