Polish the body side moldings?

[Fordzilla80]

The moldings on the sides of my truck are looking pretty crappy.They pretty much look gray.I've seen pictures of similar trucks with chrome moldings,but looking at mine,it doesn't look like there's any way they could be shined to chrome.It kinda looks like they're stainless steel.So,my first question is what exactly are they supposed to look like?If they're supposed to be really shiny,then how do I go about polishing them up?All help is appreciated...

Here's a pic to show you what i'm talkin about...

BTW,not to brag or anything,but you see those original perfect rust free wheel wells?

 

[LEB Ben]

I was under the impression that it was anodized aluminum...in which case the coating gets hazy and gives you what you have. No matter how hard you buff, you won't be able to get it any better. You need to strip it, polish it and clear it. The easiest route is build a couple boxes big enough to hold your trim with tarps in it. Put your trim in there, spray the trim down with oven cleaner and go to town on it. Repeat as many times as necessary. Then polish it up. Then spray it down with a coat of clear...or leave it bare...but then you'll need to clean it weekly.

 

[Fordzilla80]

That sounds like what it might be.I didn't think of that.That sounds like a bunch of work just to polish them.I think that'll be a project I do after final paint.As you can see I have the bottom moldings,as well as the top moldings,so it would take alot of time to do them all.lol.

At least I got lucky when I bought the truck.Every single piece of molding was there,and only the tailgate molding was bent.I need to get a replacement for that one.Anyways,Thanks Ben.

 

[LEB Ben]

No problem...and yes, it does take forever...if I had to break it down, it probably took me 15 minutes worth of stripping for every 6" to get down to the metal...and that didn't include wait time to let the oven cleaner react. And my trim was pretty decent...I've heard of guys that needed to apply cleaner and then buff upwards of 6 times.

 

[Fordzilla80]

No problem...and yes, it does take forever...if I had to break it down, it probably took me 15 minutes worth of stripping for every 6" to get down to the metal...and that didn't include wait time to let the oven cleaner react. And my trim was pretty decent...I've heard of guys that needed to apply cleaner and then buff upwards of 6 times.

Dang.Maybe I should put it off til I have me some younguns and can put them to work on it.lol.6 hands are better than one.

 

[Mr. Stroker]

I restore aluminum and stainless trim for the old Mopars.

What we use is regular household lye that you get from your local ace or do it best hardware store..

You get a plastic tote big enough to submerge the trim in. Use Warm water to fill the tote. Get a couple of bottles of the household lye and pour it in. Place your trim in the tote (USE RUBBER GLOVES!!!!) the lye burns the crap out of your hands. You should see the water act like its boiling. The trim will literally turn a darker color if you take it out of the bath.

Once its been in the bath for a while (not to long maby 20 minutes if you place all them in at once, if not then 20 minutes per piece of trim) you need to get yourself a towel, and cold water. Wipe the parts down with the towel and cold water. This will turn the color of the part back to the way it was.

Its pretty crazy how it works but it works great. Make sure you have all the lye off the part.

To take out any scratches you need to use some 800 grit wet sand paper and work your way up.

Polishing, best way is to find yourself a high speed buffer.. What i have set up at home is a polishing pad on the end of a cut off wheel. With that and aluminum polishing rouge and some time, the parts will look like chrome.

You really should get the parts shipped out to get re anodized. Being on a daily driver and a truck i really recommend it. And if you decide to then the part has to be 100% free of any polishing or sanding scratches. The anodization will magnify any little scratch.

We can probably restore your trim (not re anodized) for 20 bucks each.

 

[LEB Ben]

Yeah...I've actually used that process on some smaller pieces mike. Personally, I thought 6 to one half dozen to the other...I felt like it was the same amount of work.

 

[Fordzilla80]

Well,it really isn't TOO important to get them fully restored.The truck isn't a daily driver,and is kinda my little weekend toy.I might take it to a few car shows once it's done,but nothing like Carlisle.So it doesn't have to be perfect.When I get a new tailgate piece,I might try the two methods on the old piece and the new piece and see what happens and what works better.Thanks for all the help guys!

 

[m78]

I say buy some rustoleum chrome spray bomb and shoot it.

 

[Mr. Stroker]

Thats the only process we use and found to be the most effective. I have big drainage pvc tubes that i cut and use to do the longer body side moldings from the cars. But the warm water and lye seams to make it go much faster. Especially when you have 5 aluminum jobs that contain anything from wheel opening moldings to whole grilles.

 

[hyperactive460]

does any of these methods have any affect on the hard black insert on the molding ? my molding is in pretty good shape just really dull looking, i'd hate to have it get ruined by doing something wrong .

 

[FordF-SuperDuty]

Both my pieces of wheel well trim have a small dent.