polishing stainless trim

[mateo1279]

Very Nice!

[Greg63]

Originally Posted by Captainfab

Good job on the trim....Very nice '63

I have never seen those type of wheels before...what brand are they?

Thanks.
The rims are Keystone Rebels that I bought new in the mid '80's. That was back when all that was available for 6 bolt Chevy's were white 6 spoke rims or the Keystones.
Everyone had the white 6 spokes and I wanted to be different.

[Micmac]

Schweeeeeeeeeet! That is a work of art my friend. I had a 47 Indian Chief that was that color, factory stock (colour for you), it looks awesome. 63's Rule! I put over 250 miles on mine yesterday, rode to Paint Bank, Virginia to a resturant that specializes in Buffalo burgers, started to snow. Hey you Virginia guys, your gas ain't cheaper than ours in North Carolina anymore!

[ol Curt]

Originally Posted by Greg63

Well , I am about 3/4 of the way through the job and the results are amazing .
I soak the trim with oven cleaner for around 45 minutes and then hit them with an S.O.S. pad . In most cases the anodizing comes right off , but sometimes a second run through with the oven cleaner is needed .
At that point I can push out and file down any dents or surface imperfections .
Once they are down to raw aluminum and straight it is easy to buff them up .
I will give them a clear coat to protect them once they are all finished .

I sure would like to know more about the process of straightening the dents etc. I have a lot of dings in mine...

[Greg63]

I can tell you that it is not that easy.
I found myself a small awl with a 90 degree bend near the end and used the 90 degree spot to push out the dents and such.
Once I had the dent pushed out I used a fine metal mill file and worked the metal straight and smooth. Going one way with the file produced a nice clean cut but if I went the opposite way it would cut deep scores in the metal (trial and error).
Of course prior to all this I sprayed the piece with oven cleaner (Easy-Off worked well, and had a lovely lemon scent ), let that sit for 1/2 an hour and then scrubbed with a S.O.S. pad.
After the piece was straight I would then spend at least an hour on each piece buffing and polishing the part.
The hardest part was knowing how much to push out the dent and how little to file down the high spot.

I have no previous experience in doing this but found that with some patience and thinking, it can be done.

[rcrahn]

Good job and it is very tedious work to straighten, polish and coat aluminum trim. To give you an idea of places that do it professionally here is ano-brite in S. CA.
http://www.kingoftrim.com/
Look at this workmanship. I used them to do 4 wheelwell moldings for my 1969 Firebird.