Hi everyone.

Just a quick question regarding curved gas pump plates.

Does anyone know what process was used to make them? I recently sold an Indian gasoline curved plate to a customer and noticed that it was quite smooth and had no stress cracks at all. The 3 Texaco Fire Chief curved plates that I’ve sold over the years have all had stress cracks running vertically on them almost across the entire surface and it got me wondering about process for bending. I’m not looking for a step by step blueprint, more just wondering what order the process takes, specifically between the bending step and the porcelain layout step. We’re the plates bent first and then the porcelain applied and then fired or was the porcelain laid on flat plates and then the plates bent under intensely high heat when the porcelain was still pliable. If I had to guess I’d say bent after the fact under high heat?

Anyway a definitive answer would be greatly appreciated. 😀