You're grille isn't steel, it's potmetal with some little steel deflectors bolted to it.

Thanks for the info so far. I'm getting some conflicting info though so lemme summarize what's been said. Once again, my car is a 1950 Standard 8:

bumper, grille, hubcaps: steel
side trim, window trim: stainless
handles, hood ornament, windshield frame: potmetal

How about the headlight/taillight bezels??

I'm trying to decide on how much of the chroming process I'm willing to undertake myself and how much of it to farm out. In the last car I did, I farmed out the entire thing and it cost me a small fortune. The Packard has a lot more chroming needed and having it rechromed will get really expensive.

The process I'm looking at is Copy Chrome and it's being pushed by caswellplating.com. It's not a true chroming process but it's supposed to look just like chrome without the huge power needs and the dangerous chemicals. I've seen some finished products and it looks fine.

The process for both pot metal and steel is similar. Plate the metal first with copper. Repair, polish and degrease. Plate with Copy Chrome. Their process for stainless is different: Stainless Steel Activator, repair & polish, Nickel Plate.

I believe the way these work is vacuum is connected thru solenoid valve to single port on side of extra block and is there at all times. When button pushed, solenoid allows vacuum also into large piston and it draws up a charge of water. When button released, solenoid stops vacuum to piston and spring pushes water which goes thru a chamber in bottom of block. It moves a flapper so vacuum is now applied to co-ordinator and starts WS wiper. As long as water flows, or there is pressure against flapper, vacuum keeps co-ordinator retracted and in operation. As soon as water stops, flapper cuts off vacuum again to co-ordinator and the air bleed via adjust screw slowly allows spring to return it and stop motor.

51-54 Grilles are Pot-Metal.

Bumpers are steel

Side Trim and Window trim Stainless

53-54 Headlight Doors are Pot-Metal

Hood Ornaments are Pot-Metal

Taillight Bodies are Pot-Metal

Basically if it's chrome plated and not a bumper (or bumperette/guard), it's pot-metal on the 51-54 bodies.

Plating some bad parts to pass as acceptable with other aged chrome may be OK but I don't know about doing the whole car.

The bumpers are steel- the grill is steel. Everything on the sides is stainless. Door, trunk handles potmetal, windscreen frame also. The bird or other hood ornament is potmetal. Hubcaps and wheel trim rings are steel.

Here is a link to a forum that I frequent where agent did some Nova bumpers with spray chrome.

spi.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=1028&highlight=chrome&mforum=spi

I purchased a plating kit several years ago, but darned if I've ever found time to try it out.

In the meantime, however, I have done a lot of studying with DIY books from a couple of major hobby suppliers. Those books are well worth the investment even BEFORE you lay down any money for a plating kit.

Plating is a very interesting field, but things can get very complicated and very quickly. There are also some forums that cater specifically to craft, but the posts I've seen were very in-depth - almost at an engineer's level.

Unfortunately, I know of no reference that will tell you what base metals you can expect to find on any specific car. I'd venture a guess that you'll mainly be dealing with plain steel, stainless steel, or "pot-metal" on a '50 Packard, but don't know of any pure aluminum trim parts on that car. Some clubs have some vague judging standards like "stainless steel parts should not be plated", but there are actually some stainless steel trim parts that DO have a thin coat of chrome-plating.

Steel base metal doesn't look to be much of a problem, but replating pot-metal, poses some serious challenges - even beyond dealing with the obvious, inevitable pits. While the primary component of pot-metal used in die-cast parts is zinc, the alloy may contain some lead, aluminum, copper, or other metals, but there is no single, universal blend - not even in automtive circles. Pot-metals contain some impurities that make it difficult to plate, and the zinc component makes for a porous alloy that tends to retain chemcials used to clean/strip. Now, there are some shortcuts for "restoring" pot-metal trim, which even some plating businesses use, that help make for a good-looking final result, but I have my doubts as to the long-term durability.

Based on what I've read, if I ever plug in the outfit that I have, I will practice with some used, yet non-essential, parts first.

Meanwhile, perhaps other Packard owners who have tried this will chime with their experience.

Does this chroming kit do triple plating? If it doesn't it's not worth it IMHO, as it won't last very long.

Let us know how you come out on this venture. I'd be interested in this approach if it proves to be economically viable.

The first place I saw the washer system called that was in the Accessories section of the factory shop manual. Yet, it wasn't until some ten years later, when I disassembled a rusty old pump & cover from a parts car to repair the one on my first Patrician (which had half of its innards missing), that I understood the function behind the name.

Though I was expecting some sort of little motor, it is a little electric solenoid that merely opens a vacuum passage. The resulting pressure differential retracts a spring-loaded plunger inside the jar to load a plastic chamber with washer fluid - much like a syringe. When the vacuum source is cut-off, the return spring pushes the plunger down, and fluid is forced out the washer nozzles.

However, I've never been quite sure about the function of the other plastic "block" on the jar cover. Upon finding some little rubber flaps (valves?) inside one that I disassembled, I was reminded of repair kits for 60s/70s-era Trico pumps on full-size GM cars that dispensed the washer fluid in a pulsed stream, but I've only seen a steady stream from the two systems that I've had working on Packard V8s.