MTFCA Forum

At Chickasha I made several brass acquisitions for Hay Wagon to speedster project. These are pictures of the very brass T at Chickasha. That is a lot of brass. So how does one keep all that brass shiny? Does it tarnish? How do you get into the tight spaces to keep it shining? How often does re-polishing have to be done?

I realize this is of no help regarding your question, but I'll highly recommend developing an affinity for tarnished brass.

Gotta Love that Brass... Get some covers or make some. I bought some of that material for silverware storage and my wife made me some covers that really helps keep the tarnish a bay. Since we live very close to the salt ocean here and I mostly keep my garage door open the brass can tarnish to that beautiful nasty nonshiney color that says it's time again very quick!
I don't polish mine to often so I don't mind then if I drive it out in a foggy morning or a bit of rain. I do like the brass to be shined though.

I'll tell you from my looong long experience with this brassy car the easiest and quickest polish to use when it does get bad is one called Bright Boy metal polish. I buy it at the janitorial supply. I removes the tarnish the easiest of any!!! But I then do a second easy quick polish to get that deep glow with the Billet Mothers or Blue Magic or Prism. I know the Mothers polish contains something to help prevent the tarnish and maybe the others as well.

I've tried the Aquanet spray, Brass spray and Laquer but they all have issues. I like driving and shinny brass but they always don't match. Seems like I polish mine about three times a year and especially if there's a big tour or parade I might give it more detail.

PS I'm actually trying some of the Mothers Ceramic polish that I've used on my SS fridge and it is Awesome. We'll see if it works on brass half as good?

Good luck on your new car. Drive it and enjoy!!

Try neverdull polish, it works great even with just a light wipe down.

I have spent almost three weeks polishing everything on the 11. I use Autosol polish from Eastwood. It is somewhat expensive but it is good. My car was all disassembled for the engine rebuild, so everything could be reached for a thorough polishing. IMHO, that is the only way to do a top level job. Tim Wren enjoys polishing horns in particular, so maybe he will share his expertise here! Cheers, Bill

Having all black era T’s it’s enough for me to keep my cars looking decent. I can imagine ‘way back when’ up until 1916 brass was used on ModelT’s what it really looked like after people had their cars for a few months.
It really looks nice if it’s polished and kept up with it but I do have to say that T’s that were used in everyday life in our Grandfathers time it wasn’t thought of in the same way as we do now.
But it does look really neat when it’s cleaned up at the car shows and tours!

Ha ha Bill! Welllll....maybe. I DO have that stupid horn looking pretty good...now if I can only get it to HONK!! LOL

Ignacio...I've use Blue Magic most of my "brass tenure". I've tried the NeverDull that Jonah mentioned and it was crap.
I've tried other stuff, keep going back to Blue Magic.

Advice...do NOT coat the brass. Even the best of a coating will eventually "breathe" in oxygen, and that's why tarnishes.
Once that happens, you'll regret it as you will have a mess on your hands.

I will try a coupla "before and after pics" here...I gotta re-size them, as this site always rejects them due to some pixel issue. Ugg.

I see I don't have any of that stupid horn! It really did turn out nice! Maybe some other day.

Polishing eventually rounds sharp edges and removes crisp details. Not a problem on a modern car, but there are a lot of T’s out there that have probably had their brass polished HUNDREDS of times. If your brass items have crisp sharp details and are in excellent condition, you may want to do everything you can to avoid polishing. If your brass is all worn out and has already been polished into oblivion, then frequently polishing it won’t cause any further harm. If your brass is in excellent condition you can have it gold plated and it won’t tarnish.

I'm in Bryan's camp on this subject ! Our '14 had been parked in a garage under a nice cover for over 30 years - the patina was fabulous until the old timer thought he should at least polish the head lamp rims - I've never polished this car.

So far Blue Magic is the winner. I tried it versus Nevr Dull. Blue Magic was much faster. Blue Magic has a strong ammonia odor so I wonder if that is what does it?

I'm wondering if that "worn out brass" that Adam refers to above is from folks buffing their brass using power tools rather than by hand?

Ammonia ? Yup. I'm quite sure it is effective in dissolving tarnish. Brasso (back when it worked) smelled strongly of ammonia, so does Blue Magic, which I also find to be very good. I've noticed bird droppings (also containing ammonia) noticeably remove tarnish when washed off.

There's a certain charm to tarnished brass; I'm about due to make Lizzie "less charming". Polishing brass can be therapeutic - fun for some, not for all ! I enjoy polishing brass, but obviously I'm not exactly "OCD" about it.

Did they polish it back then? Occasionally - maybe.

I have a '13 with ruined brass parts due to constant polishing. Adam is absolutely right.

Additionally, f you want to do long-term damage to brass, particularly inducing stress related cracks in the light rims, use anything with ammonia in it.

Wow ! Scott, you talked me out of it !!
(that was easy )

Wenol Cream is my friend! When you store the car cover with an old sheet, last a long time!

I also use Wenol as it leaves a wax coating but if you have ever seen Tim's 13 follow his advise!! Bud.

I applaud all of you who invest hours of effort polishing all of that brass, producing sore muscles, cramped hands, and brilliant, glittering, spellbinding radiators, lamps, and all.










I just don't have the time.



As found.

After washing off the dust and pigeon poop.

Scott is correct, ammonia is bad mojo for brass! Cleans it but will cause cracks eventually.

Personally, I do not like the look of polished brass. Just too cutesy and
contrived. No one polished their brass cars back in the day, and doing so
now is just another case of "over-'restoration'", which to my thinking is both
historically inaccurate (for cars being used) and just trying too hard on the
part of current owners to make their cars too cute.

Achieving that warm and mellow patina with brass takes years. One hour
of polishing and you have destroyed it. I much prefer that natural patina to
the over-blinging of bright brass. I know I am weird this way, but I have long
wondered who started the hobby paradigm, that cars need to be made to
look brand new, even when the owner does not keep them as static display
pieces in a mocked up dealer showroom, because that is the only time and
place that cars like ours realistically looked spit-shined and new.