‘34 Deluxe sill plate color, evaporust results

Guardian1fox2

I was curious as to what the original sill plates were painted. I would imagine black, but mine are pointless from years of use. I recently used Evaporust and got them looking brand new and next step will be to paint, but want to get it right. 

Check this out, the original tools that came with the car were completely covered in surface rust. Soaked them in the solution and it is simply incredible. Of course I forgot to take pics of the sill plates I did but equal results:

Toddh

I believe they were painted the same color as the grill vanes.  Paint color was called Velochrome and it’s closest modern equivalent is the satin silver wheel paint. 

Guardian1fox2

Toddh said:

I believe they were painted the same color as the grill vanes.  Paint color was called Velochrome and it’s closest modern equivalent is the satin silver wheel paint. 

When you say grille vanes, are you speaking of these? I thought they were chromed but can’t tell as they are oxidized.

Toddh

On my ‘34 Terraplane, they’re not chromed but painted.  I forgot that you have a Hudson.  They may be chromed but I’m not certain.  Regardless, I do believe your door sills are painted with Velachrome.  

Old Fogey UK

My car, being an entry-level LTS Series Hudson, has a silver painted grille and and surrounding moulding on the cowl. The sill plates are polished aluminium alloy (I've clear lacquered them to keep them shiny).

Old Fogey UK

Toddh said:

I believe they were painted the same color as the grill vanes.  Paint color was called Velochrome and it’s closest modern equivalent is the satin silver wheel paint. 

That's the colour I was trying to describe.

tigermoth

The grills were painted and not nickel or chrome plated? I did not know that. 

Regards, Tom

tigermoth

By ‘35 the surround for the insert was stainless. 

Regards, Tom

Old Fogey UK

Hi Tom.
 I can only speak for the LTS Hudsons which, incidentally, also had painted windshield frames.
The more up-market Hudsons may all have had chrome grilles.
All the British-built 1934 and 1935 Hudsons I've seen have had chrome grilles, but they also vary in many other ways from US made cars.
The entry-level 1934 LTS Hudsons and KS Terraplanes weren't marketed in Britain.

Old Fogey UK

Here's my grille - please ignore the 75th Anniversary of Victory Europe Day "dressing up".

Guardian1fox2

Wow Fogey I need my grille that shiny! I’m pretty sure mine was chromed as well. The windshield trim is also chrome. I’ll be painting those sills this week so I’ll see if I can find that color paint. Fogey can you post a pic of your door sill plates? In the spirit of the previous owner he worked hard to keep things correct I’d like to do the same. 

Old Fogey UK

Neither my grille nor my sill plates are chromed.
The grille, apart from the chromed centre strip, crank hole cover and the little curved bit at the bottom of the grille, is painted  the colour that Toddh mentioned.
My sill plates aren't painted, they're just bare polished alloy that I've clear lacquered to keep them looking shiny.
My original windshield frame was a total rust-out and so I had a new one made out of brass and the guy chromed it - and although it's not stock for a LTS, it looks a lot nicer than a frame painted body colour as the original was.

Guardian1fox2

Oh gotcha. Man ima go take a pic of my grille maybe y’all can tell if it was painted or chromed. I mean, I feel if it was painted that’ll be WAY cheaper than chroming that bad boy lol I’ll post pic of the sill plates as well now that I got them pretty much cleaned up and ready for whatever ima do. 

Old Fogey UK

Your grille looks painted.
I think that painting the mesh part and the surround on the cowl and chroming the centre trims looks very effective and more restrained than having the whole lot chromed.
It's also much less expensive to do it that way and you won't blind oncoming drivers on sunny days !

Old Fogey UK

Guardian1fox2 said:

Oh gotcha. Man ima go take a pic of my grille maybe y’all can tell if it was painted or chromed. I mean, I feel if it was painted that’ll be WAY cheaper than chroming that bad boy lol I’ll post pic of the sill plates as well now that I got them pretty much cleaned up and ready for whatever ima do. 

Do you have a mesh stone guard behind the grille ?
I have one but haven't noticed them on other 34s and 35s I've seen - maybe I'm just fortunate that mine survived.
I painted mine black - it would probably have looked better in silver but it's done now and I don't want the hassle of removing and dismantling the cowl and grille.

Guardian1fox2

Old Fogey UK said:

Guardian1fox2 said:

Oh gotcha. Man ima go take a pic of my grille maybe y’all can tell if it was painted or chromed. I mean, I feel if it was painted that’ll be WAY cheaper than chroming that bad boy lol I’ll post pic of the sill plates as well now that I got them pretty much cleaned up and ready for whatever ima do. 

Do you have a mesh stone guard behind the grille ?
I have one but haven't noticed them on other 34s and 35s I've seen - maybe I'm just fortunate that mine survived.
I painted mine black - it would probably have looked better in silver but it's done now and I don't want the hassle of removing and dismantling the cowl and grille.

Hmm not sure? I’m about to take a pic on the way out to work. Here are a pic of my rear door sill plates. They were covered in surface rust and gunk. I only had a little bit of the evaporust left after spilling it, so I flipped them over at the 6 hour point and it still came out good. Still need to do a little more prep before I paint:

They are steel and not alloy as they are strong with a magnet.

Guardian1fox2

Here’s a close up on my grille. Looking closely I can tell that it is indeed painted that silver color, however I need to polish that stainless trim and the chrome center piece. I’ll look and see if there’s any info on removing that grille I’ve never done it. 

Also. Slightly annoying when I upload pics from my phone as I never use desktop, it’s always sideways lol.

Guardian1fox2

I’d like to remove trim, and clean it up off the car, but I’m afraid to pull it off and peel the paint off the car. Do not wanna remove radiator to remove that grille I’ll use scotch tape before I do that 😂

Guardian1fox2

So that ring trim ring around the grille that’s painted, is that stainless? While the straight piece down the middle chrome? With my big motor that’s got a controller on it I used to use for buffing and French wheels pipes, if I can get it off without damaging it or peeling paint, with all my wheels and compound blocks I could make that thing shine like chrome. I need to move it into the garage so I can plug it back up! Start a business 😂

Toddh

The stone mesh behind the grill is supposed to be semi gloss black 

Old Fogey UK

A magnet won't stick to my sill plates and there was no sign of rust, just aluminium style corrosion and so they're not steel, on my car at least.
It's a personal choice whether to paint them or polish and lacquer them - the end result is the same.
You have to take the whole cowling off to get at the fixings holding the grille in and that's not a quick and easy job.
You have to be very careful not to break any of the grille  fixings off the cowling because after nearly 90 years they're extremely brittle.
I found this out from bitter experience and cobbling together some sort of effective substitute that could hold the assembly together was a true pain in the posterior.
What I did worked but I never lean too hard on the grille !
The moral is don't attempt to dismantle the cowling and grille without a great deal of caution and care.

Thanks also to Todd for confirming that I actually got something right (for once !), even if only by accident !

Old Fogey UK

A couple of extra thoughts on grille attachments.
My problem with the clips only occurred when I got the car back from the paint shop and was reassembling the components. I couldn't weld or braze new clips on without damaging the new paint so I had to come up with a "cold" solution that wouldn't mean repainting the cowling. After quite a bit of experimentation, I did away with clips and attached very small retaining bolts to the cowl by super gluing and then setting them in JB Weld. That has held together OK up to now but I don't press too hard on the grille. If I ever have to do the job again (Heaven forbid !), I think I would tackle it differently.
The grilles on 1935s are attached differently (and much more sensibly), suggesting that Hudson realised they'd created a design fault in the 1934s.
I previously had a French Citroen Traction Avant and they had a grille similarly shaped to that of 1934 Hudsons. I hate to say this about anything French, but the way Citroen attached the grille trim pieces was a much better design. The grille and its slats were stamped in one piece and the Citroen "Double V" and the grille edge trims (made, very sensibly, from aluminium alloy) were attached through holes in the grille by wire spring clips - and you can easily buy repro replacements for all of the components !
Apart from praising French engineering, can I commit a further heresy by saying that my 34 is the first 1930s American car I've owned and I find many of the design solutions to how the body, ancillary trim and the interior are put together a little bit bizarre compared to the ways 1930s European car designers approached these things ?
I know I'm going to be shot down in flames for saying all of this on a Hudson forum but in my own defence, I'd draw attention to doorless headlamps and lenses as a prime example of 1930s Detroit peculiarity (and impracticality) !

Apologies for having rambled on so much but now being retired, I don't have too much else to worry about !