Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums General Petroliana Discussion restoring a filpruf rack help please

i was wondering if anyone has restored a filpruf rack, looking for suggestions.
i really don't want to use vinyl graphics want to either get hand painted of silk screen for the panels, also what do i use on the metal frame and corner pieces was thinking if a chrome shop could do some type of metal coating
not chrome maybe a cadmium coating or some type of chemical treatment like that any help would be great, here is a pic of my rack now
marky

I would start over with blank pieces over steel.

this is how I re-did mine, used red, silver & black on the rack- found the 2 larger signs on ebay & had a sign painter re-do the smaller ones- more pictures?...

more pics please

more pictures as requested:...
legs & handle - black
bottle rack & pieces that hold in the signs- silver
hardware coming up too the handle- red

thanks randy

Here is mine I have been working on for the past two years. Was going to paint the original panels but ended up just looking for decent original ones. Just need the two sides in A grade

its so funny looking online at different racks here and online very seldom did the all have the same bottles

Im working on mine as well. I am going to attempt to spray paint the rack in a silver color and match it to the original coating. I would try to get original signs they are pretty easy to find. The tough signs are the small end ones. Good luck.

I am just about ready to sell my rack and bottles. I have been getting fed up looking at it day in and day out. Seems like a never ending battle with it!
Dan

Marky,

Ill throw out a few ideas, see if its helpful at all! You could bead or sand blast the wire frame and have it bright zinc plated, no one does cadmium anymore it's too poisonous. It's cheap if you find the right place, leaves a finish I would think would be close to original. My cost locally would be about $30.

For the signs, I would find a decent picture of what you want. Get a straight on shot. Upload the file to www.vectormagic and have them vectorize it for you. It will cost about $25. Now there will be no artwork charges at the printer. Get a sign company to print the graphics for you on vinyl (ask for bubble free placing vinyl). Paint new metal panels red. Place vinyl decals on panels carefully avoiding bubbles. Clear coat the panels and it will look like they are painted on, beware any bubbles in the vinyl will be magnified by the clearcoat.

I found someone local to me that does cadmium coating but he said
it would be $150 which I thought was kinda high

Yeah, thats high. If he is doing actual cadmium plating, it is an expensive process and it will not look right for what you have, it leaves a goldish finish, like car door latches. Most places are using zinc phosphate (I think I got that right) as a substitute for cadmium. I dont think you want that anyway, bright zinc will look better and be cheaper, its a silver finish. The place I go to in Oshkosh, WI has a minium lot charge of $30 for bright zinc and I have not yet gone over that with them.

I was looking for someone to do cadmium plating to replate some mustang parts and found that almost no one does it anymore, and their expensive, apparently the regulations against cadmium plating are really high.

i found a place local to me locally to cadmium plating, i'm gonna plate one of my cheaper racks to see how it comes out, will be done sat, pics to follow over the weekend
marky

got the shell rack this morning to test out instead of using my filpruf rack
here is a pic of the cadmium plating i thought it came out nice cost me $50 to have sandblasted and plated, any thoughts or opinions would be great
marky