How to restore your side moldings

[Prostreet 72]

I decided to share with everyone how to restore your dented side moldings. I have a set of them on the for sale side priced rather cheap, and people are asking about how many dents, and dings they have in them. It dawned on me that people may not know how to restore these parts. So here it is.

1) The first step is to remove the dents and dings by pushing them out from the rear of the molding. To do this, I use the tools pictured below. You want to be careful not to push too hard, or the dent will end up too proud on the show side. To keep this from happening, I use a piece of plywood to push them out on. The plywood will not mark up the molding further. I use wooden sticks and some small punches to push the dents out. Then straighten the clip flanges with a small hammer and needle nose plyers.

2) After the dents have been pushed out, you need to use 180 grit sand paper and sand the surface flat. This will do two things for you. 1) It will smooth out the dent by removing the high and low spots. 2) It will cut thru the clear coating that the factory used on the moldings, and allow you to work with the raw aluminum.

3) After you have removed the imperfections and clear coat with the 180 grit paper, you can switch to 800 grit wet/dry paper. I follow the 800 with 1200 then 2000 before I polish it back up.

4) Next you tape it off and repaint the black stripes. I choose to wipe the surface with a thinner prior to painting.

5) The only thing left to do is replace the woodgrain sticker and you are done. You have removed the dents, and saved the molding and a pile of money.

Once you have them completed, you can use Mothers or Flitz to polish them back up at will. If you need help, or have questions on what to do, let me know.

Chris