71 outer grille - I quit

[chewiebarker]

I sent the last two weekends trying to clean/restore/polish my outer grille. Last weekend I tried cleaners and fine polishes to no avail. Stains and rust did not even budge, never mind trying to find a shine. Today I tried the drain cleaner trick that is posted everywhere I here, and now the grille really looks like crap. It is all blotchy and milky and I even tried to wet sand a small patch and that just made it looked like brushed metal.

So, after all these wasted hours, I give up. I am just going to have it re-anodized. I don't have the time or patience or know how to bother doing anything else.

My questions for all of you, then, are:

1. What are all of the parts on a 71 suburban that are supposed to be anodized aluminum? If I am going to do the grille, I might as well get everything done all at once. I think the headlight bezels are supposed to be. Are the bumpers? Or at those chrome? Any interior?

2. Are 67 GMC grilles also anodized? I have two of them listed for sale here but have had no interest, they look like crap, and I will sell them, but I might as well anodize them too if they are supposed to be.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Marc

[vectorit]

You sound like me 10 years ago...
I learned that trying to make aluminum trim look good with a buffing wheel or chemicals is just an exercise in futility.

Not sure about your 1971, but the only things typically anodized to be bright are the side trim and the grill surround along with the headlight bezels.

Before you go looking to get stuff refinished, be sure to check to see if you can buy new at a lesser cost.

Back when I did mine, no one was reproducing Suburban stuff. So getting my OE trim pieces redone was the only option back then.

[chewiebarker]

Thanks Chris. I will check on reproduction, but I have 2 1971 Chevy grilles and two 1967 GMCs. So if I don't refinish them what will I do with them? Feel bad scrapping them. Just getting frustrated with how little time I have to work on my truck and how much work there is to do on it. Then I spend some time trying to accomplish something and it turns out to be a waste of time.

[vectorit]

The GMC grills, I would restore.
Those tend to be pretty scarce, and worth good coin in nice shape.

I will say this, as I say it to everyone restoring a Suburban.
Think of it as eating an elephant, it is one bite at a time and don't over do it.
Since you will be easily overwhelmed with the amount of work to do, and the large amount of time and money it takes to complete.

I have just recently considered my suburban finished, and I have been restoring it since 1995... It took this long, since like everyone else I had limited funds, time, and interest involved in such a large endeavor.

Slow and steady wins the race.