need 1936 dodge windshield crank blade

I am looking for the metal blade for a1936 dodge windshield crank dose anyone have a source or a extra blade I do have the crank and handle

I have seen them once in a while on ebay, but not often. I don't think anyone reproduces them, yet.

Oooo... This one is probably gonna be tough. Protect your pocketbook. :eek:

Here are some shots of what you need. Could it be possible to find a piece of spring steel and remake the part? The usual problem piece is the gear set. If those are good, maybe you can just craft the "blade". :confused:

I have cranks that are good , The problem all started when I was using a 1part molasses to 9 parts water for rust and tarnish with great success it restored the grill to beyond belief , i put the cranks in their and 3 days later the blades were shattered as if they glass go figure?

OK, just so we are on the same page, the "blades" you are speaking of are the bent spring steel strap pieces in the photos above with the little square holes down the center length of them - right?

If they are, then I hope to hear from some of the chemists in the group to get an idea of what happened there. The "active ingredients" described were water and molasses. What do they contain or create that would act that way on spring steel (which I believe the "strap" to be made of)? Or for that matter, rust?

As 1936 D2 said, I also think that those are spring steel like a metal tape measure.

yes they are im thing the banding on lumber but their a little tuff

I am finding out a bit more on that molasses process. It becomes a chelating process. I understand the mixture becomes a sort of phosphoric acid so this is what may have cause grief with the alloys in the spring steel.

I can tell you this until you try it you won't believe it , its a slow it takes 2 weeks but a warm water rinse with a little soap and ur ready to paint . Im attaching a grill that a good chrome guy told me was beyond repair it cleaned all the fog off the chrome with out hurting the subsurface.

Remember the grille sides are not chrome ;the bars are covered witha stainless sleeve. The cross bars are also stainless steel.

Ok but i can tell you I didn't scrub 1 bit just soap and water I just wish I had before pic . the fins were rusted bad no real way to scrub or sand them without scratching the stainless

Looks cool! But how do you plan to paint the fins and not the stainless? They should be black so it looks like the little round stainless "tubes" are suspended in mid air. This is the issue I was always trying to figure out.

Its prob. called many hours and fine tape.

The fins were never were black originally in fact I painted 3 fins black and some thing didn't look right I do have an 100% original car down to the paint so I went and checked and there the color I have now. What they did was paint he fin like on the centerpiece becuase only the front of the centerpiece gets chrome not the fin on the centerpiece (nickel realy ).The guy I talked to has done nothing but chrome for over 30 years. The grill on my original 36 is alot brighter with the fins close to a chrome color The black fin looked nothing like the original

It will be original woody Im taking a D-2 and doing what they did back in 1936 with a Hercules body

Hi Amigo. When you get some time, could you take a closeup photo of the original grille on your other car and post it here as a thumbnail style attachment? Try a couple different lighting styles (sun - different angles, flash assist, cloudy, back lit, etc.) so we can get some ideas of what you are seeing with the different shine on the different parts? Maybe a section about 6 inches high that is able to describe what you are getting at in your post #16.

I have seen a set of the side panels of the grille taken from an original "barn find" car. These panels have the fins black with a sort of satin style paint (pretty much like the firewall is supposed to look). It seems as though the fins were painted, then the stainless caps were put on the fins after. May these have been after market replacements? Why would they make them with such a different look than the originals?

Concerning the center, it seems unlikely that only part of the piece of cast material would be chromed. That would be much harder to do than just chrome the whole thing. It is more likely that the front is a hard finished chrome with the under layers fully polished, and the back parts of the fins a soft finished chrome that has a more hazy or grey looking finish because it does not have as highly polished under layers. This is probable because it is much harder to get tools into those fin back areas to do a complete polish prior to the final chroming.

If they were going for this same look on the side panels of the grille, you just about have that on yours after your cleaning process! But you still have to preserve that raw surface of the steel fins or they will flash rust rather quickly.

So again, how are you going to preserve THAT look (dull silver on the fin backs), without dulling the front stainless steel caps of the fins? You could use a zinc or phosphate coating to get the preservation and the bright grey look, but I fear that may dull the stainless. So how is it done?

Thanks in advance if you can post those photos!

Edited January 22, 2012 by 1936 D2
Added data (see edit history)

I used a high quality metal etch primer from a can after masking off the stainless part of the grill with the stainless facing down and i had to keep paper towels at the base of the stainless prices becuase the metal etch primer would run down the inside part of the fin like a straw and leach out the base it worked quite well , Ill get some photos of the grill the fins are no where near black , the avatar photo is the car and that exterior paint is original just so you can see the shape the car is in look at a car with black fins it looks nothing like the original

Too bad we didn't pull this grille stuff out as a separate topic. Like from post #10 on. This is some good stuff but it will be buried in here and hard for others to find. Hmmm...

Edited January 22, 2012 by 1936 D2 (see edit history)

Hey Rick - Maybe you could PM "Peter Gariepy" and ask if he could try to do that. I wonder...?

lol no kidding a little side tracked but Im predijust I just think a 1936 dodge grill is one of the best from 1928 to 1940

I have four sets of grille sides and one NOS side and on all of them the fins are finished in a black semi-gloss finish. This would blend better with the black radiator than silver fins and accentuate the stainless trim. I think Krylon semi-gloss black is the closest I've seen.

Man Im sorry to here that becuase if your grills have black fins you got riped off. Believe me when i tell you I spent almost 2 hours with a molders 20 dollar paint brush painting the first 3fins black then stood back and just about crapped becuase it looked nothing like the original car i own. Some thing happens when they were black and the whole grill spread looks off. So I went to where I store the original car and was shocked also to realise the fins are not black at all check out the attached pics. Their kind of gray -sliver with a mat finish The Color tone whole sale car paint shop did a match for me and the only finish that matched was a special bumper paint they use on new cars it had the exact sheen. look at the pic,s my car is black

Last pic is the center pice and the sides domatch the center pice

jpage - Could YOU attach some thumbnail style attachment photos of the five grille side pieces here so we can start some objective comparisons and maybe we all can come to some conclusion as to what is happening with the colors? Since we are this deep into it here, we may as well finish! I'm sure others reading this in the future may appreciate the "final results".

hey im done with this I kown what im talking about and im not color blind untill some one post some picture with black fins im done

All mine are original parts and they are definately black. I don't know if all grilles were made at the factories or if they were contracted out. That may explain differences in finishes. Who knows?Cars can vary some depending on when and where they were built. No matter! Looks like you have a very nice car!

hey im done with this I kown what im talking about and im not color blind untill some one post some picture with black fins im done

Just keeps gettin better

Depending on the amount of light/slash heat exposure and who knows what else a balck will turn chalky and gray over time

Makes more sense maybe if it were originally black since as someone mentioned already the background is black but what do I know :confused:

Rick - You have an EXCELLENT example of a documented original car! Besides that, it looks VERY nice. So please don't get frustrated with the questions or comments. We all have seen "variations" in original cars. That is one of the things that makes this part of the hobby concerning "originality" so interesting (and sometimes frustrating!).

Sounds like what jpage and I are seeing (and maybe others but we haven't heard from them yet) are either cars with restored grilles with semi-gloss black fins or original pieces with remnants of semi-gloss black paint on them. So I have attached a couple examples of those two here. The first two photos are of a "restored" grille showing the non-polished sides to the center section (which also includes pitting) of a rechromed grille center. The second two photos show an original (damaged) grille removed from a black '36 Dodge 4 Dr Touring Sedan. This grille is known to be original from a documented original three owner car. Those shots show the black paint that is left on the grill side panel fins. You can see it is definitely black - not a charcoal gray or anything.

So this is the info that is bringing up the question. It is just a matter of putting the info out there, finding out from others what they have seen, and trying to make some conclusions.

What I have experienced over time is there are NO obvious conclusions until the research is extended, questions asked and answered, comparisons made and THEN we can sometimes say "it is always like that" and other times we find we can't pin it down and more time is needed to make positive conclusions. (Some times we never pin it down and then we may know there were variations during the manufacture!)

All this is kind of fun, listening to what others have found, learning stuff along the way and maybe finding the "correct" answer to something with a feeling of confidence.

Again, I am really liking your cars. We will probably be asking for your opinions and photos of stuff from your nice original example as time goes by!

yea who realy knows , the black was supposed to be a parts car for my woody project it was so original when we went to pick it up all I use it for is a reference for the woody project. That car will be an original car also but just embellish on some of the original features with powder coating and stuff like that. But that molasses realy works on a grill and it will clean the fins inside and out with out sanding or scrubbing. Just dont use it on a flex steel window crank lol here isw a link to the start up on the woodie project im pretty shure the breather cap wasent blue lol

I coud post some photos but forgive my ignorance,I have no idea as how to do it on this forum. All my cars were original,2 are old parts cars, and I have seen several "aftermarket replacements" that look nothing like the originals. Again ,this is purely for discussion and comparison and I mean no disrespect to anyone. I have found that there are 2 differing body trim styles and at least 2 different fan styles and door handle styles in 1936. Changes were always being made due to costs or availability . Discussions like this is where we can really learn about these cars!

Just a few minutes ago I went to look at the grilles and I did notice something. All the fins did appear to be black ,but, on one grille I noticed some fading to a kind of light silver or gray sheen under a 60 watt bulb. Turning the part I could see that this fading seemed to be consistant and if held right in the light did appear to be a gray shade. I wonder if the finish is not really paint but some other treatment ,maybe a kind of blackening similar to blueing, that may fade and irrides with exposure to sunlight. A blueing or oil phosphate finish would be less likely to chip when applying the stainless caps. Just an observation; any thoughts?

Just a few minutes ago I went to look at the grilles and I did notice something. All the fins did appear to be black ,but, on one grille I noticed some fading to a kind of light silver or gray sheen under a 60 watt bulb. Turning the part I could see that this fading seemed to be consistant and if held right in the light did appear to be a gray shade. I wonder if the finish is not really paint but some other treatment ,maybe a kind of blackening similar to blueing, that may fade and irrides with exposure to sunlight. A blueing or oil phosphate finish would be less likely to chip when applying the stainless caps. Just an observation; any thoughts?

I agree. My 1936 fins had the gray surface.

No kidding I purchased a dodge truck new in 1974 and the window fell down in the passengers side i took the panel off to fix it and inside the door it was coated with spotted ceramic and stamped FARGO the drivers door wasn't and stamped dodge. i was told they consolidate parts at the end of the year and use them up on the last run and the passenger's door was meant for Canada

Hey Amigo! Not to change the subject but could you use 2" commercial venitian blinds as material for your crank blade? Maybe double them up? I would use a die grinder to cut the square holes or else the drill might kink it. Just my 2 cents worth......

Bill

I dont know but I thought of that I do have a couple of places that I can now get one so I think im going to be ok thanks

I think if you go to eBay now there's just what you're looking for being offered. Try item # 110812243999 and see what you think. I can't tell from the photo how good it is but the seller claims it is not cracked. Good luck!

Jim