I want to have my trim and grill shell polished or replaced. It is in good shape with just a couple dings but very dull. I was wondering if people would know if it would be cheaper to have my trim taken and professionally polished and clear coated or just replace it.

 

This stuff is magic .....

 

Aluminum or stainless? Stainless is relatively easy. You can buy a couple of wheels at harbor freight and compound. Find directions on the internet to polish it and then clear. Aluminum is a different animal. It is probably anodized. If you remove the anodizing, you can polish it and the clear it, you can re anodize, or you can replace. The problem with removing the anodizing and clearing, is if you don't get all of the old anodizing off, it will appear blotchy unless you get all of the old material off. To give you an idea on pricing, it cost me about $100 ($50 each to have a pair of headlight buckets on my 67 Fairlane stripped, polished and professionally re anodized. I repaired the dings in them myself, then they tool over.

If it is a straight up resto, try to find NOS pieces with second choice being having it done professionally. If you just want it to shine, you can remove the anodizing with stripper from Eastwood (Oven cleaner will work, but takes a lot of patience).. Polish then clear. It'll shine, but it won't be quite right.

 

hp246, I have some trim for my scs that I need to do something with because there is none available anywhere. When you fixed the dings on your parts, how did you do it? Just hammer them out or was there more to it? And what did you mean by "then they tool over"?

 

benmodrow,
I went to Harbor Freight and picked up some light hammers hammers and a mini anvil. I think one of the hammers was a jewelers hammer, and the other one was a bit bigger, can't remember what it was for though (Had one end that was kinda like a pick but a bit longer). Bot had brass and plastic interchangeable heads. I bought some brass rod in a couple of different diameters from the local hardware, and made picks out of them. .

I also picked up a book online about bright metal repair. Used some old pieces of trim off another project to practice on. I used the hammers and picks I made from the brass, and worked out the dings and dents. The aluminum was pretty easy to work. I did not bother to remove the anodizing because I knew I was going to have the material professionally polished and anodized. When I got everything as close as I thought I could get it (I was pleased with how closed I really could get it), I used a file to level it out, then about 600 grit sandpaper. Be careful that you have enough metal to file and sand. then used some 800 and 1200, to finish. If you don't, you can go through pretty easy. Sorry that "tool" was a typo and should have said "took over." I took my parts in, they finished removing the old anodizing, polished the aluminum and re anodized it. I think they would have preferred I left the metal for them to work, but you are really paying for their time. When I got the pieces back, they were beautiful. One piece did have a hairline crack. I used epoxy on the back side with some fiber glass clothe to back it up (First covering the out side with masking tape so the glue wouldn't leak through the crack. I can't even tell the crack is there, and I know exactly where it is.

 

Where would you take stuff to have it re-anodized?

 

I'm near Detroit, so there are some companies that specialize in restoration. If you check your Yellow pages for a company that specializes in polishing, they should be able to direct you to someone who does it. Another source could be Chrome platers. These are the guys I used in Redford, MI McNicholsAnodizing.com

They did a great job, were fast, and everytime I was in there, there was a steady stream of restorers having work done there.

 

Thanks, Im going to look into it as my grill is in good shape and my front bumper is as well, both are dull though.

 

If you take it in let us know the costs.