Unregistered users may browse the website, but in order to participate in the forums and view select pages (such as "Club Contacts" and "Classified Ads") a user account is required. Click HERE to email the webmaster and request a free account. The National DeSoto Club uses real names rather than pseudonyms. Notify the webmaster of your user name preference (Johnathon Doe vs. John Doe, etc.), preferred email address, and password request.
Found the original invoice for my 1953 Firedome. One option added (for $12 in 1953) is "Porcelanize". Any ideas on what that is?
If I am not mistaken it was a coating put on the chrome pieces to keep them shiny. We were in the middle of the Korean war and auto manufacturers could not get the chromium to plate the parts so this was a substitute. Kind of like what happened in WWII when the chrome was not available, the trim was painted the body color.
Chris
Paul,
Chris is in the right church, just a row or two from the correct pew. Porcelainize was a dealer applied automotive finish akin to wax or polish. It may not have been anything more special than regular car wax but the attached marketing materials sure made it sound like something unique.
Thank you gentlemen for your replies. Very interesting! And quite a sales job they did on that "porcelanize"! $12 for that option is about $107 today. I guess not too far off from a modern-day professional exterior wax/polish/detail....
They must have offered this in 1956 too. I remember the guy I bought my '56 from kept saying that the paint was Porcelainized and he bought the car NEW. Yeah, that makes ME the 2nd owner! 
Jim
Today one would get into trouble for false advertising:
porcelainize:
(transitive verb)
to fire a glassy coating on (as steel)
James
