What is Pot Metal? I took outer door handles to a shop in OKC to have them rechromed. The shop told me $70 per handle because the handles were made out of pot metal. He then proceded to explain the very detailed process of refinishing the handle. ANyway, I found a new set of handles for $49. Just wanted to know about POT METAL.

I think it's a category of music that covers bands like Pink Floyd, The Dead and Phish!

Seriously though, my understanding is that Pot Metal (I've also heard "Pig Iron") is a hodge podge mixture of metals that is cheap to produce and easy to cast. It is used for door handles, tail light bezels, etc. It is easily broken and pits easily. To refinish it takes a lot of work.

I'm certainly no expert, this is just what I've been told by others.

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Bret Copsey
'68 Camaro base coupe
'92 Caprice wagon
'98 Malibu

[This message has been edited by bretcopsey (edited 03-01-2001).]

i've heard the same.

Gambler
Pot metal is a mixture of aluminum and zinc, the ratios vary depending on what the foundry had on hand at the time. It is porous and soft, and it corrodes very easily. The pit marks you see are from interal corosion and is very difficult to repair and or plate. The only plating process that works real good contains cyanide which drives the EPA crazy. I have done plating for my cars and pot metal is a real bitch

I used to work in a plating shop for 4 years...talk about some nasty stuff...nearly every plating solution we used (cad, zink, copper, silver, lead, indium) was cyanide based...nickel was probably the most environmentally safe stuff we used. Chrome was the worst...chromic acid is some brutally nasty stuff...and even in powdered form it was more corrosive than liquid nitric acid (the stuff we used was anyway). We did mostly FAA/mil spec aircraft parts plating...the EPA had their heads up our butts all the time. I sure built some sweet looking engines while I worked there http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif Anyway, we did do some pot metal plating...it was a nightmare to prep and if the the plating didnt stick instantly, the whole mess had to be stripped off and the process started over. After stripping any old plating off, the part was then glass oxide blasted, polished with a rubber polishing wheel, zinc coated, then a heavy copper coat applied, then polished again, then re-cleaned in an caustic solution with current applied (hi-amperage), rinsed, neutralized in a 2% muratic acid solution (to neutralize any remaining caustic cleaner), rinsed in 2 different tanks of clean water, and then plated with bright nickel (also with current applied), then rinsed twice, then hit with a high amperage flash chrome plate, rinsed several more times, hot water rinsed, then dipped into a tank of iridite solution (to seal the surface...this kept fingerprints off of the finish when it was baked), rinsed several more times, and then baked in an over for 4 hours (also called decarbonizing...this released any free carbon from the surface and kept the chrome finish from being too brittle). As you can see, this stuff is no fun to plate...its hard to get anything to stick to it because of the makeup of the material. Pot metal has aluminum, tin, zinc, and who knows what else...its like the hotdog/bologna of metal http://www.camaros.net/forum/biggrin.gif

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375hp 78 Chevy truck
77 Chevy Nova
95 Chevy Lumina 3.4L
and building a 78 Nova

[This message has been edited by travis (edited 03-01-2001).]

Pig iron is no where close to pot metal. Pig iron is iron with no other materials. Pig iron is utilized to make carbon steel, and all other alloys of steel.