You can get cans of oven cleaner at the dollar store. I buy a cart full of oven cleaner and an all purpose cleaner/ degreaser called totally awesome. The awesome is a great cleaner that I use to clean the concrete driveway, tires, whatever. Also between the awesome and the oven cleaner I don't have a greasy engine or tranny in my possession. Just can't best it at a buck a can/bottle.

 

When I de-anodized and polished mine, I used Draino crystals. You can get a no name version at Lowes or Home Depot for about half the price of Draino brand. I used a plastic bed liner I had laying around for my soaking tub. I filled it with enough water to cover the grill and poured in four or five bottles of the crystals. I had it totally stripped in half a day. I scrubbed it with a scotch brite pad every half hour or so, helped speed up the process. I wet sanded out the heavy scratches and then polished with a buff wheel on a grinder with polishing rouge. It's a nasty, messy, very dirty job, but it looks awesome when it's all done.

 

What grit of sandpaper did you use to take out the heavy scratches in your shell?

I've got a few heavy ones on the top of the passenger side. When I saw them, I wasn't sure if I could sand them out or not because they're pretty deep.

Did you work through any grits or just use one grit?

 

I think I used 250 or 500 on a DA. The polishing wheel on the grinder takes out the sanding scratches from the DA pretty quickly.

 

Good to know. How thin did the aluminum get where you had sanded?

Notice any differences in strength of the shell or if it became harder to polish, using some muscle?

The scratches on mine are fairly deep, so I'm hoping I don't weaken the material too too much.

 

Aaron, if I recall, the book I have says to make no more than five or six passes with the coarser grit paper, then step up to finer and finer until you get to buffing compound. They did warn about sanding too deep and sanding through the grille shell.

I've done the 'heavy' work on mine; taking the big dings out. I haven't gotten to the polishing yet. I'm still busy working on body work when I have time.

 

Thanks for the info. Much appreciated!

If that book of yours is electronic, you should email me a copy. I would love to have it on hand since it sounds like its contents would be very beneficial during my refurnishing of my grille shell.

 

Trim panel finale:
In a depressing conclusion to trying to deanodize my tail trim panel, I will share a cautionary tale:
After hitting the piece with oven cleaner and bleach, the coating had come off a bit and was patchy, but I had barely dented the job. It looked like it was going to take 5+ cans or more of oven cleaner an 10 hrs to get the job done. I stepped up to bleach and supplemented with 1cup of NaOH pellets. This dissolved more of the coating, but much still remained. Finally, I contacted a plating company to find out how they do it. They said typically they strip aluminum in 1lbs of NaOH pellet to 2 gallons of water. They also said if the andozing had started to come off, it was hopeless to continue with chemical stripping but didn't explain why. Looks like I found out. I mixed up the solution and submerged the panel. It began to bubble which I assumed was the anodizing being removed. I agitated the panel but overall let it soak for 3 hrs. Upon returned all the coating had been removed. However, after lifting out the piece, it was paper thin! The NaOH solution had been strong enough to dissolve the metal! It appears that once the oxide layer is compromised, the metal begins to dissolve unevenly. So I now have a FORD panel with some holes etched into it. Maybe a shop sign now?
For reference, I took a dinged up old trim panel and soaked it to see if stripping this way could work. I left the piece in the solution for no more than 60 seconds, took it out and hit it with metal polish. It looked perfect and shined up easily! So the moral: Use more dilute NaOH, strip in one go, and watch the piece the entire time.
So any suggestions on where to get a new trim panel? EBAY or Dennis Carpenter?

 

FYI: it was this panel. Any suggestions on how I should have gone about restoring it? I will likely get this as a replacement.

1974 ford f100 tailgate trim moulding | eBay

 

That's a lot of pennies... I wouldn't pay that much... ever...

I bought one with a small ding in it for $5... and that's here in Canada where everything sells for more.

 

Aaron, I ordered my book from Eastwood:

How to Restore Auto Trim & Hardware Book

In my opinion it's worth the money.

 

I believe the 3 hours you let it soak is what ruined it. I didnt let mine sit for more than 10 min at a clip. I would pull it out and inspect it. Using 600 grit sand paper as a scrubber on the hard spots. then let it sit another 10 min. It wasn't in in the solution for more than 30 min TOTAL

 

With the correct body hammers it can be taken out but once the metal is stretched out it can never really be shrunken back into position. Especially the far left and right edge of the dent, actually the metal in the area is so bent its torn.

A "elbow or soft dent" is fixable with the dri ice trick, but a "edge or crease dent" is pretty much not going to repair out as well as you would like it to.

And when you try to force it back into place it will only finish tearing and then you will have a crack, good luck.

 

Suggestions on where to find one that cheap? I'm not excited to pay $100.

 

Going cheap on a grill shell will equal bad fit and even a worse look, you get what you pay for.

Sometimes buying a complete parts truck with a great shell is route to go, and part out the rest on FTE classifieds?