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What is involved in white brass?

We have a customer trying to refinish a Hudson (1934) front grill. He thinks the material may be made from white brass. What is white brass and how do you activate in order to plate it?

Ron Saas
- Colunbus, Ohio
2002

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Ron,

The Hudson front grill is made of zinc. I can not translate the right english word for that but I think that should be pressure zinc casting.

Regards,

Anders Sundman
4th Generation Surface Engineering
Consultant - Arvika,
Sweden
2002

As an old car "nut" as well as one who is involved in the plating business I can guess that the Hudson grille is probably a type of zinc die casting popularly referred to as "pot metal". It contains zinc and other unknown metals but is generally treated as zinc. The impurities can include copper, aluminum, cadmium, lead, etc. When refinishing a copper flash, heavy copper plate, polish, are generally necessary before the final plating processes.

Gene Packman
process supplier - Great Neck, New York
2002