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Still moving along, sandblasting bumper mounting parts, painting bolt heads and other small body stuff. I attached the trim pieces between fenders/front and bumper so that the painter gets the car with all body parts to be painted. The grill is getting chromed in 'driver quality' but the price is better than I feared. Perhaps I'll clean up the senior air filter with a wire brush, sandpaper then prime and paint if it warms up a little bit. That part will not go anywhere near the sandblast booth! It looks like it had not seen oil in many years.
Also trail fitting some chrome parts to see how things fit, and identify places where the painter will have to do some body work.

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few more pics

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Joel Ray sent me a 6 nice bumper bolts! Thanks Joel. Have to order some 1/2 x 20 UNF lock nuts now. Man, even the yellow cad plating is still pretty. They will replace 6 round head carriage bolts which look like they came from home dept.

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Oh scheisse. The chromer broke my grill.
He said that putting the current through the thing during the chrome process broke it, but I think he just dropped it. I was only going for driver quality, but that is worse than what I was expecting. One step forward two steps back.

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That is disappointing. Will you be able to repair it with something like the low temp muggy weld or another rod that says it works on pot metal?

Don't know yet. That bottom part of the grill got pretty bent when it broke, and is just pulled straight by the silver painted sheetmetal trim behind it....I really don't know if it can be repaired. If I can find an affordable grill I might be able to ship it in another car coming to germany soon.
Is the process you're talking about with mig welding, or oxy/acetelyn or something else?

They are special "low temp" welding rods. I've had people report that aluminum rod is low heat enough to work without blowing through the pot metal, put can not confirm that.

My grille is also cracked, but right in the middle on that lower section. But the bumperette crossbar sheetmetal hides it completely.

The area is for sure the weakest portion of the grille and it should never be held by that area or rested upon. The strenght is all in the top portion.

Check out MuggyWeld for the rod and process.http://muggyweld.com Maybe there is a comparable product in Germany.

Well, that is worth a try at least. I found something that looks like it will work. It says for aluminium white metal and auto grills "Wei?metall: Zum Reparieren von defekten Autogrills"

The melting point is also low, so I may give it a shot.
TMP-Loettechnik

In german, they call it soldering and not welding. I think that terminology fits better, becasue the parts being welded together are not actually melted, only the material used to join the two pieces.

If it works with a propane torch, can't be too crazy.

Thanks for the advice!

Just make sure the melting temp is above the temp of the plating bath.