'51 Chieftain - Inline 14 Amp fuse holders

[PhilAndrews]

Howdy, all.

 

I'm currently going through the electrics on my Chieftain- the previous owners left a real mess behind. Cut wires, broken wires.. sadly all the wiring has succumbed to the ravages of time, so it's all coming out to be replaced, in the name of safety. Most of the wiring is like that in the pictures below- rotten and crumbled with exposed conductors. I'm going by the wiring schematics for the car and keeping all the same circuits- including the two inline fuses that clip into the wire clamp plate on the firewall.

I can just about read the aluminum plate that fits to the left of it. It states the inline fuses are "gray" and "gold". 

There is only one of the inline fuse holders left- the other one is missing (well, the main body is gone, there's the unsprung end dangling off one wire) and the one that was still there was in quite bad shape. 

So, with little to lose, I cleaned it up. In so doing there were traces of copper plate on top of the silver, so was this possibly either copper or brass plated? What colors were the holders? Were they painted or plated?

I decided to nickel plate this one- going with "careworn" as the finish.

I cannot brass plate it due to the (rather unpleasant and heavily regulated) chemicals involved, but I can certainly yellow lacquer it if it should have had a "gold-ish" finish.

 

Also, does anybody have a spare one they would be willing to sell?

 

Thank you

 

 

--Phil

Edited November 21, 2018 by PhilAndrews (see edit history)

[Grizz]

The clean up job looks good!!! Mine on my 54’ are plastic...I think

Edited January 21, 2019 by Grizz (see edit history)

[Summershandy]

Best shot of mine. One is actually kind of gold and are plastic. Mine are so-so and was going to change them out but they look too new!

[PhilAndrews]

Hmm. I do see the markings for "gold" and "gray" fuse holders. I'm guessing they switched out to plastic ones somewhere between 51 and 54- not surprising, plastic components were just beginning to become popular.

 

I'm actually very surprised at the number of thermoplastics and PMMA in use on the car. I was expecting glass in a lot of places (rear lights, dashboard, and so on). It also has the additional benefit of being an insulator and not rusting. Polythene was a wonder material, really compared to PMMA and Bakelite. I'm not surprised GM started using it.

 

Phil