B- BODY ASHTRAY RESTORATION

Hi all,
I have a 69 Superbee and the (dash) ashtray needs to be restored.
I heard somewhere that one of those instrument rebuild places does them.... I've seen some of the before & after pics, although it looks 90% better you can still see where there was "pitting" in the metal.
My question is, does anybody reproduce these ashtrays? if not is there away of filling in the pits and then replating the ashtray ?

Later, BUZZ

i think you would be alot better off
finding a better part to start with in the first place.
you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear!

are they chromed? after it is cleaned, you can copper plate it, fill the pits with solder, sand and polish, then have it re plated

Not being reproduced .

I've done a couple and don't know of any cost effective way to fill pits and still be able to replate to metal.

I posted up my results after spending tons of hours block sanding mine with a small hard rubber sanding block to remove the pits. I was originally looking to see if anyone had a better way of doing these as I couldn't imagine most people taking countless hours to sand out the pits. If there was a fast or cheap way someone is holding the secret close to their vest. If you were to pay someone to do this ($10/hr) you would have to be willing to pay about $500 for the sanding alone, a little more or less depending on the condition of your ashtray at start. I suspect this is more than people are willing to pay and a driver that ashtray resto is scarce, as it is tedious and costly. Options would be to search for a good quality ashtray to start with (another costly solution), pay someone big $$ to restore, or start sanding it yourself.

Good luck whatever you decide, would like to hear and see the outcome.

This is one I did for a 1969 Charger.
It was a pretty clean piece when I started so pitting is at a bare minimum.

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Nice.

I would start with a nice, unpitted original and replate....these things aren't expensive enough to justify any more labor than that.


Dave