I have a straight un-dented XK150 grill with decent chrome. However, the small blade that is welded or brazed to the bottom end of the vertical center chrome slats is broken off just at the rear of the slats. Hence, the safety spring hook is unable to engage and secure the grill and hood.
I would like to repair blade functionality without overheating and damaging the existing chrome as I do not want to rechrome grill.
Has anyone ever solved this problem or have any good ideas?
I have soldered quite a bit on a Mark V grille and an XK120 grille.
The technique is to not let too much heat on it.
I use a propane torch with a hose nozzle so it’s easy to control.
Clean each surface, then tin it separately.
Then solder the two pieces together.
With both areas pre-tinned, you should be able to stick them together without too much heat.
Rob,
Aren’t those pieces brazed? If so, would a solder joint be strong enough to hold the bonnet if it popped open?
The soldering I did was on vanes, not stressed joints. I am not familiar with the 150 grille. I understand you folks often use a dog collar as a second line of defense. Perhaps a picture to understand the problem better?
Can’t speak for the XK150 grille but the XK120’s vanes were silver soldered, definitely not brazed. You can apply sufficient heat to silver solder, which is quite strong, without discolouring the chrome. The trick is to not detach the adjacent vanes in the process.
Hmmm
Thanks to all. I have done quite a bit of lead and silver solder and some brazing in my time. I do not consider lead solder up to the task in my experience. Proper silver solder probably would be but in my experience attaching a small part (blade strip) to a large part (vaned grill heat sink) requires a lot of heat on the larger piece to get it to flow well (essential) to attach two pieces and hold a heavy bouncing hood in place… Certainly vane detachment would be an issue but I believe chrome discoloration would be very hard to avoid.
I was hoping there might be some special arc weld type rod the could do the trick (assuming I grind the chrome off at the edge of the break) fast enough to avoid heating the grill— but maybe not.
There are low silver content lead solders that will be strong enough to secure a single vane, applied at a lower temperature that doesn’t disturb the adjacent vanes. it’ll be plenty strong if you tin the mating surface of the vane before applying just enough heat for the solder to flow. See Erica’s recent advice elsewhere in the forum.