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Conti Empress restoration - Page 3

Postby drgary on Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:54 am

kitt wrote:... there's no stainless steel at all on this machine, its all chromed brass.... I had the drip tray cover, front plate,top cover and group casting all re-plated.I'm very happy with the results.


For others restoring old Conti levers, another H-B member sent me a picture of his Conti Prestina. His was polished right down to the brass so he thought of it as a brass machine. The Prestina I'm starting to restore is still chromed but scratched. Now that I know these are brass underneath, it looks like I'll have to chrome plate it too.
Gary
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Postby kitt on Mon Apr 11, 2011 2:27 am

I had the best luck on my outer case using a technique i found online for restoring old chrome.It involved coca cola and tin foil, This removed the old oxidation without scratching the chrome.I followed this up with a metal polish (autosol metal polish, or Simichrome polish).Some panels were beyond repair, but re-chroming was cheaper than i thought - $300NZD (US$230) for 3 panels, group casting and lever.
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Postby drgary on Mon Apr 11, 2011 12:07 pm

Aluminum foil and a soft drink? Who'da thought???

I looked it up online and see people saying that you use aluminum because it's softer than chrome but take it easy so you don't add more scratches. I'll give it a try. I wonder why Coke, but I've seen others use it to slowly dissolve metallic things. Some list this method for cleaning rust off of chrome but they also write about it for simply polishing old chrome. I'll be sure to wipe it off because we don't want to attract ants!
Gary
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