MTFCA Forum

Hi, I have a used brass windshield frame and am wondering how to polish it and take the dings out? It is numbered MT-5133 which might be a 1909-1912 window frame?

The "MT 5133" is Mark F. @ Model T Haven's numbering system - has no bearing on year.

The easiest thing to do would be to find a musical instrument repair shop.... they can pop the dent and polish it up for you too. Another option might be an automotive paintless dent repair such as Dent Wizard. They have loads of different tools to push dents out. Any plating shop could do the buffing for you, or go to Harbor Freight and buy their buffer, (something like $69.99) and buff it yourself. You'll find lots of use for the buffer once you get one.

Consulting a brass musical instrument repair technician is a good idea, however, brass instruments are made in pieces so that they can be dismantled so the interiors of the pieces are accessible to the repair technician. I can’t see any way to pull the dent out without having access to the interior of the tube, through which you could push a piece of round rod in to force out the dent from the inside and carefully hammer the widened portion round. If this is not possible perhaps you can braze a drop of brass into the depression of the dent so that it is slightly higher than the top plane of the dent. Then the drop of brass could be ground down even with the surrounding surface of the tube, smoothed and polished. Jim Patrick

If this screen is for your speedster, I'd polish the frame and let the dings reflect the history of the parts. It won't be perfect, but then your speedster won't be either. You'd be better off concocting a far fetched story about how the dents came about to amuse any onlookers.

Allan from down under.

I agree with Allan. Those dents are a survivorship story. Kind of like the ever present dent you always see in early horns outside the firewall...it's always from the hood being dropped on it in a hurry or just plain clumsiness. So what! It says "hey look at me...I'm still around and working"! Just polish it with Blue Magic and it'll look great.

He's a good tip when you decide to polish it. Get some Brite Boy metal polish and use it first before the blue magic or other good polishes.

The brite boy works much quicker and easy but doesn't have the deep gloss that the better polishes have. I find it at the janitorial supply places.

I like some dents and evidence of age like some others... IMHO

As far as removing the dents a tapered mandrel with a slot for the glass channel could be pushed down and light taping around the dent while pushing the mandrel would take care of the sides of the channel. On the main or center portion where you can't get a mandrel in a piece of brass rod could be soldered to the center of the dent and used to pull it while tapping around the edge of the dent. The brass would need to be annealed first and perhaps occasionally during the process. Not a job for a beginner but it could be done. Sometimes lead is poured into tubes to keep them from collapsing and then melted out afterwards.
Food for thought.
Rich