Hello, I'm trying to bring a 77 f-150 back from near death. I wanted to start simple so I wire wheeled the rear bumper and sprayed it flat black. Next I pulled the grill to try and dress it up, shine and touch up. I tryed blue metal polish but it did nothing but leave a dull blue residue. Anyone have any better luck with shining these grills?? Next this truck has 'rainbow' stripe, can anyone enlighten me on the why & what for ?? I did see the same stripe on an old ad.
I really appreciate the help and your patience.

 

I have a 77 highboy and have been told to buy a product called mothers. I did find it at an auto parts store I was told it will bring that shine back on aluminum.

I have been fighting the side molding, trying to get that to come back. Loosing battle.

 

Hey Guys,
All the aluminum trim and grill shells are anodized. You need to remove the anodizing before you can polish the parts.The anodizing is a protective coating put on by the factory that keeps the aluminum from oxidizing. You could polish your arm off and not get anywhere with that anodizing.There are companys that remove the anodizing then polish and then reanodize. BUT you can remove it yourself with oven cleaner. Easyoff or cheap dollar store stuff it doesn't seem to matter. Remove the part lay it out coat with oven cleaner. Then let it sit a few minutes. Then rinse well with water.

The amount of time you leave the cleaner on varys from piece to piece.usually 2 to 5 minutes on aluminum.(this also works on stainless trim but takes a little longer) you most likely will need to coat and rinse 2 or 3 times to get all of the anodizing off. Let the pieces dry or dry them somehow between coats. You may want to try it on a scrap piece to get the fell for it. What your looking for is for the aluminum to turn a uniform milky white color. Don't panic when you see it turn the milky white it will shine again! For large pieces such as grill shells you may want to do half the piece then the other half. Once the intire piece is the milky white color all of the anodizing is gone. Then it will polish up and shine like chrome. BUT now all the protective coating is gone and You'll need to either reanodize or spray with a good clear coat paint. ( Diamond Clear works well ) If you don't it will dull up and you'll be repolishing quite often. I believe thier selling kits now so you can do the anodizing at home. (I'm not sure of that though) I use Never dull to polish pieces but if you have some kind of buffer wheel that would be faster. Run a search on anodizing and you'll find all kinds of info.