Has anyone restored their ashtray? Disassembly looks to be very easy. The big problem is what appear to be very unique rivets.

First, there are the rivets below that hold the rotating piece of chrome in place. They do not rotate but are precisely sized to allow the chrome piece to rotate smoothly on them without any slop or squeaking. They look like they might be brass.

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And these rivets hold the plastic (to which the front piece and other chrome piece attach with two screws) onto the steel. They look like pop rivets on the bottom but they are very flush on the top side of the ashtray (barely visible with the corrosion; also appear to be brass). I guess that they could be replicated by grinding down the back side of the pop rivet a bit...

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Does anyone know where these rivets can be purchased?

Also, the metal of the ashtray almost looks to be just unfinished pot metal? Was there some kind of finish on it?

Why not just find a replacement excellent condition ashtray?

Do they exist?

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I have a set of those arriving later today . I’m going to do some experimenting on the weekend to see how to set them.

Does anyone know what the finish was on the steel?

Appears to me to just be zinc

Real easy to find clean used ones

I guess that would make sense too as it wouldn't burn like paint. The chalky texture threw me off but maybe that's just the degradation of the zinc.

Good to know that I'll be able to get a good one if my restoration attempt fails.

You'll need to find an NOS pack of Lucky Strikes to fill it with when your done.

This is what I found when I opened mine during disassembly. Nice! At least I knew it was functional!

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Why not Camels ?

its just natural finish zinc in there.
not pot metal but made from zinc sheet.
or maybe a zinc coated steel sheet.
zinc is very soft so its probably zinc coated steel.

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I got the ashtray done this afternoon. Overall I'm pleased with the result. The steel didn't want to plate uniformly but it looks so much better than before. I used a vinegar/epsom salt plating bath to give it that dull look.

Before blasting:

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Post blasting:

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Finished and reassembled:

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The through rivets look OE to me on the outside. They needed to be a bit longer but will do. I used M3 x 3 and I think M3 x 3.5 would work and x 4 might be better.

Inside view of rivets (it was hard to get a bucking bar in there)

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For the bottom rivets I used flush head 1/8". I drilled a bit out of the center to look more like the originals.

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I polished the chrome and plated the two screws. The solid rivets give a similar look on the inside to the original. I'd have bucked them some more but the plastic on the bottom side was getting hairline cracks so I stopped.

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nice job cleaning that up.