Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

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No more lacquer protective coating. The cleaned chrome was given a good coat of wax.

The grille on the my 54 came from a 53 donor car and was covered in yellowed lacquer that I had to remove. So there was still some war chrome being produced on the 53 model line. Figure this could have been a 53 that was produced in the fall of 1952.

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Outside of some minor pitting my chrome is pretty good, but not sure if it's because the chrome is the "good" stuff, or if it's because the car spent most of it's life inside, at least I'm assuming it did.

In this STB, Packard states the affected brightwork parts are coated with a "Baked Enamel."

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/downloads/STB/51T-22.pdf

I can't help but wonder if dealers and owners completely removing and then not replacing the enamel covering or "film" over the war chromed grille when it was new might have hastened and worsened the deterioration that we see on many 52s.

When announcing the use of war chrome in the service counselor article linked in the second post, Packard wrote several paragraphs explaining cautions in cleaning and then how to repair the covering should it be scratched in use. A few months later they issued another article cautioning dealers to no longer use the Blue Coral as was originally suggested as being a safe to use cleaner because that product was found to be damaging the covering. If they went to the trouble of explaning how to protect it doubt they intended for it to be removed.

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Given the description in the article I think I have a few parts that are affected by the restrictions. The reason being is the lack of chrome and the copper plate starting to show.

Tail lights and washers have copper showing, but grill and fins are good.

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Usually pretty easy to identify SS vs chrome trim. There's a noticeable difference in luster. SS will rust stain but usually won't pit.(saltwater excluded) Pitting is common in white metal chromed trim. The white metal goes bad over time too even if the "chrome" is good.
Just because the chrome is off/thin, doesn't mean much as it's easy to over clean chrome and wear off the chrome layer with the polish compounds. It's only on there at a small amount. Copper and nickel do the heavy plating. If it's dull then likely the chrome is gone - nickel showing, if the copper is showing the nickel is gone too.
SS can be heavily buffed/polished as it's the same metal all the way through. It's just thin metal to start with.