Pagoda SL Group
W113 Pagoda SL Group => General Discussion => Topic started by: 113gray on October 07, 2005, 14:26:24
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Was thinking about having some external trim strips rechromed & my plater says he doesn't do aluminum trim. Anyone know what the base metal is? I suspect aluminum since it is not attracted by a magnet. I guess brass is a less likely possibility too. The pieces in question are on top of the door & the curved pieces on the soft top lid. Thanks, -JP- '66 230SL
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It's brass.
Douglas Kim
New York, NY
280 SL #016220
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Most of the chromed trim on these cars used brass as a base metal, Aluminum was used only (I think)on the 3 trim pieces on the lower sides of the car. (the thin one's with out the rubber strip)
Mike Halleck
Chesterfield Mi
71 280SL
68 250SL (parts car)
94 E320 Coupe
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Yep, it is brass, except for the lower body strips and the windshield frame (outer). Brass is easy to extrude, form and mill, and takes chrome better than steel, but is ridulously expensive. Any wonder there is no chromed brass on any contemporary car?
g
'64 230sl, fully sorted out...ooops, spoke too soon
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quote:
Originally posted by 113gray
Was thinking about having some external trim strips rechromed & my plater says he doesn't do aluminum trim. Anyone know what the base metal is? I suspect aluminum since it is not attracted by a magnet. I guess brass is a less likely possibility too. The pieces in question are on top of the door & the curved pieces on the soft top lid. Thanks, -JP- '66 230SL
brass
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Hello JP,
Yes, mostly brass. Your platter is correct, aluminum does not take chrome well. The lower trim is aluminum and it is not chrome plated. This aluminum lower trim on your car undergoes a different type of process sometimes called "brite dipping" which is not a plating process. It is very hard to find someone who can do this. The lighting industry uses the same process for achieving a mirror like finish on aluminum reflectors.
The door handles, trunk star, mirror base are a Zinc casting. The bumpers are steel of coarse. The "base of the windshield" trim on the sedans of the era, started off being chrome over brass and then was changed to "brite dipped" aluminum in latter years (not sure the W113 did?).
As Greg posted, brass is a favorite for low production parts. It is easy to chrome or re-chrome but is costly and a little difficult to repair if bent or damaged.
Very low production model Mercedes like the ponton cabriolets had all brass trim. Each car had all it's brass trim fitted to the cars in natural brass. After fitting the brass trim was removed and chrome plated, then installed on the cars!
Joe Alexander
Blacklick, Ohio
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The info supplied by the several responders I found to be entirely correct. The 2 curved pieces on the rear of the soft top cover, as well as the piece on top of the door external to the window glass, are all brass. The bottom piece on the door exterior is aluminum. The brass pieces appear to be very expensive to replace w/ new, while the aluminum ones are perhaps not so bad. If I run across any useful info during the process of replacement, I will pass it along to the group. I have already found out that it is possible to remove these pieces w/o harming the surrounding paint. Thanks to all. -JP-