I have started the restoration of some stainless on my 1960 Crown. I have been sanding and buffing and the metal has changed color. I swear I have taken off a thin layer of chrome plating! Has anyone else experienced this? I have restored a '52 Pontiac which was covered in stainless and that stainless looked nowhere near as bright after 40 years. My Imperials' side trim especially looks more like chrome than stainless, the reflections just look more clear than what I would expect to see in stainless.
When I have sanded or buffed out damage I swear the metal has gone from a blue cast to a yellow cast. I thought it was just that I had not buffed with the final rouge and that the color would match the original once that had been done. It didn't. Specifically, my car had some body damage between the bumper and trunk lid and at some point this was repaired. Whoever did it hit the stainless over the bumper with their sandpaper. I hit this with the buffing wheel and swear I have gone through chrome and now I have a yellow spot. Now I have to rechrome pot metal and stainless too?????? The small piece of trim on the gas door is chrome plated pot metal and I am thinking they plated the stainless to match it in color? I have witnessed this phenomenon on each piece I have done. I sanded the rear fender-well shield to remove rock damage and the color changed there too. It looks very nice finished, like newly polished
stainless should, but I swear I can see a difference between the sanded and unsanded areas. Am I insane or did Imperial really chrome the cars' stainless? I had to spend over three hours on the fender shield before I was happy with it. Should I keep on polishing or do these pieces need to be rechromed? There is a very good chance this could all be in my imagination. Say it ain't so Ethel!
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