Tarnish spots or Corrosion

Exceptional restoration is in the details

Moderator: jingle_jangle

Post Reply
User avatar
harvey49
Intermediate Member
Posts: 532
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:36 am

Tarnish spots or Corrosion

Post by harvey49 »

As I've been told not to get carried away with the cleaning cloth on gold plating and to never use metal polishes, is there any way to remove tan coloured spots appearing in the plating on my Bigsby arm?

If a remedy is available I'd like to get on top of this before it gets any worse. So do you have any suggestions out there please guys?
Life wasn't meant to be easy
User avatar
jingle_jangle
RRF Moderator
Posts: 22679
Joined: Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:00 am
Contact:

Post by jingle_jangle »

Ron, what you have there is slight corrosion beginning on the aluminum of the Bigsby arm, underneath the thin flash gold plating. As far as I know, there's no solution for this except to lacquer the arm when new so it doesn't happen. I replace some of my flat aluminum gold Bigsby arms with wire-type arms, as the wire arms are steel, and plated so as not to rust beneath the gold.
“I say in speeches that a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.”
― Kurt Vonnegut
User avatar
harvey49
Intermediate Member
Posts: 532
Joined: Tue Aug 17, 2004 2:36 am

Post by harvey49 »

I had a feeling this was going to be terminal, but I thought I'd ask before trying something that could've been detrimental and thus caused me more grief.

Thanks for the info Paul it's appreciated!
Life wasn't meant to be easy
Post Reply

Return to “Reflections of a Curmudgeon: by Paul Wilczynski”