Good to hear the base isn't rotted too. I was a little concerned about the rotted lid letting water into the base. You can try gently blasting the chrome with some fresh glass beads....that'll remove the rust and leave the chrome intact. I know you want to paint it black, but if the chrome is presentable it might be worth preserving the finish. Bet you might be able to straighten the snorkel, or was it creased on that one side? Good deal for $59.99:TU::TU:
Yes sir! I agree. Definitely pleased with my purchase. I spent a little time with it at the kitchen sink with a fresh SOS pad to see how well it looks like it will clean up. It looks promising, but it definitely won't come out perfect. There are some heavy rust spots that may not go away on the outside that would be presentable while on the car. But I believe it would clean up enough to be 'acceptable' for the time being. The bottom will clean up a fair amount, but that is also where the chrome has started to pull away in one area in particular. The snorkel can be reworked to a degree but its kinda rough. Whenever the person stepped on it they separated the seam on the one side. It has a couple creases in it, but it could be made to work. Won't be the prettiest, but it would work. Here are some pictures of the area that I cleanup. It needs a little more work in that area on the outside and then would need some polish but then should look presentable. The flash exaggerates the defects on the area I cleaned up. The bottom needs a lot of work. Either a lot of elbow grease or a blast as you mentioned previously to keep the chrome intact. I didn't touch the inside yet.
A few years ago I ran across one of these chrome jobs for the AFB-it was NOS and in the huge swap meet at one of the big shows at the Minnesota fairgrounds. It had a low price and had been sitting out there on the table for hours before I walked by=hundreds had gone by before I did- you never know what you'll run into
