polishing trim???

Posted By: sixpacksteve

polishing trim??? - 02/18/12 01:22 PM

ok guys this has probably been asked alot and i missed the boat.
ext trim. not pot metal say alum. or stainless has a anodize finish. how do you remove it. and whats the best products to restore it? other than sending it out and waiting 2+ years?

Posted By: autoxcuda

Re: polishing trim??? - 02/18/12 06:20 PM

Quote:

ok guys this has probably been asked alot and i missed the boat.
ext trim. not pot metal say alum. or stainless has a anodize finish. how do you remove it. and whats the best products to restore it? other than sending it out and waiting 2+ years?

Stainless trim does not have an anodized finish/protective coating.

You aluminum trim will have an clear anodized coating.

Not the best, but it is affective for a home user to use Easy Off oven cleaner to remove the anodizing. Spray. Let set for 10-20 min. Rinse and scrub off. It will take many applications. And don't let it sit for hours and get to agressive with the base aluminum.

Posted By: dvw

Re: polishing trim??? - 02/20/12 03:03 AM

Stainless has no coating. File or sand with what ever grit needed to remove the flaws. Sand in opposite direction with each finer grit to make sure scratches are gone. Use heavier grit in damaged areas only to eliminate extra work. Finish with 1500 and polish. Aluminum is anodized which can be removed with lye or sanded off. Same procedure only finish with 800 grit. It is not necessary to re-anodize. Here's my results.
Doug

Attached picture 7080460-racecar698.jpg

Posted By: TheBlueBeast

Re: polishing trim??? - 02/20/12 03:06 AM

You should try and get up member 340six.
kevin is the mad polisher of the general board.

Posted By: Daty Rogers

Re: polishing trim??? - 02/20/12 03:14 AM

Kev is kinda out of commission right now.

-Daty

Posted By: RonaldV

Re: polishing trim??? - 02/22/12 07:06 PM

This is something anyone can do at home. Even if you have a few dents in the trim. Gently hammer them out from behind then file down as straight as possible. Sand out the file marks going from heavy grit to fine then buff out at the very end. You can get amazing results on your own. Get a junker piece of trim to practice on first.

Posted By: 1_WILD_RT

Re: polishing trim??? - 02/22/12 07:22 PM

A Moparts member put this together...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTxR8LB9iek

I'm only linking the first one, there are three, he did a great job making it, you should watch it...