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May 30, 2009 | 04:39 PM

Lauritz

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Trim material

Hi

I am removing all the trim on my 77 F250 supercab this weekend to prep for paint.
Wile it's off, I want to polish the trim... but what with? I searched the internet a bit but the methods vary on whether the trim is chome, stainless steel or aluminium. What material is the trim on a 77 F250?

Any tips on how to best restore and polish it are very welcome.

Thanks !!

May 30, 2009 | 05:53 PM

dakonthemountain

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From: Crestline, California

It's anodized aluminum. You really can't polish it without removing the anodized protective coating (which dulls and dims the shine in time.) However, you can sand it down with triple 0 steel wool and then polish it. The problem is you will have to continue to polish it often, as the protective coating is gone and the polish wears off. There are more technical ways to explain this that most likely will be posted by others. I am just beginning this process on Burt also. I'll post pictures when I do it. Good luck!
Dak

May 30, 2009 | 06:41 PM

Lauritz

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thank you for the info and the reply
how about I sand it down like you said and spray a clearcoat over it? or will the clearcoat take the shine away?

btw, if you are removing the trim like I do, I found the perfect helper: buy one of these "hose" type flexible bits for your cordless drill, put a 3/8 socket on it and you can unbolt all these hard to reach trip-fasterners from the back that you would otherwise need to diassemble half your truck for...

May 30, 2009 | 06:45 PM

Lauritz

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oh, and here's a picture of the truck :)

May 30, 2009 | 11:59 PM

miottimouse

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i have heard of other people useing oven cleaner to remove the anodizing but i second dak you cant polish these trims i laugh all the time when i see guys on ebay selling scratched up trim saying "it just needs to be polished up" there is nos trim all the time in that site as well as other companys selling repo

May 31, 2009 | 12:28 AM

Lauritz

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so I best leave that trim alone, just give it a good clean? It doesn't look bad by any means, don't want to ruin it...

thanks for all the help btw, this is my first Ford Pickup (I'm from Switzerland and we have no pickups there at all) so I'm having a lot of fun restoring it ut also have a lot of questions

May 31, 2009 | 06:25 AM

miottimouse

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yes either you would have to replace it or leave as is it must cost you a fortune to run that truck over there fuel is costing us $1.00 ltr in alberta canada also that must be pretty rare and you probebly have the only one around! there is a lot of good info and good people here welcome!!
regurds joe