[riverboatman]

Last week I delivered a piece of restored/polished fender and door to rear wheel well SS trim to my body shop for test fitting. Because of the warping the sand blasting did he wanted to make sure they laid flush to the sheet metal. All was good but while handling them he apparently had some grime on his hands as those two pieces now have fine scratches on them. I know that when I finally get to drive my Nova, sand will make more scratches as I live on a dirt road and sand from our paved country roads most likely do more damage.

What I am wondering, is there anything I can do to protect my SS trim from further damage. I've not read of anyone clear coating them but have read where some have sent their trim off for re-anodizing but here in S. E. Georgia, I can't find anyone that does the re-anodizing process. I'm open for any and all suggestions as this needs to be done before putting the trim on the car.

 

[nightrider388]

Last week I delivered a piece of restored/polished fender and door to rear wheel well SS trim to my body shop for test fitting. Because of the warping the sand blasting did he wanted to make sure they laid flush to the sheet metal. All was good but while handling them he apparently had some grime on his hands as those two pieces now have fine scratches on them. I know that when I finally get to drive my Nova, sand will make more scratches as I live on a dirt road and sand from our paved country roads most likely do more damage.

What I am wondering, is there anything I can do to protect my SS trim from further damage. I've not read of anyone clear coating them but have read where some have sent their trim off for re-anodizing but here in S. E. Georgia, I can't find anyone that does the re-anodizing process. I'm open for any and all suggestions as this needs to be done before putting the trim on the car.

There are some places that re-anodizes but I hear its really expensive. Some people I seen have them chrome plated. You can clear them but most clears have some sort of yellow or off clear color and it will crack and peel but you can't put a rough enough surface on it. I don't think once you get it on the car it will be so easily scratched.

 

[CdnL79 Registry]

You mention the trim you delivered to the body shop was restored and polished. Was anodizing removed in the restoration process? I assume it was, because there's not much point in polishing trim that has been anodized.

Handling un-anodized aluminum trim increases the possibility of scratching, grease marks, etc. On the positive side, you can usually clean off the surface marks, fine sand out the scratches and then polish. You can leave it without anodizing, but it takes constant cleaning and polishing to keep it looking good. The only other real solution is to get it re-anodized.

Bob

 

[riverboatman]

Yes, the anodizing was removed and the trim was polished by GTL. George did a great job and I'm not complaining about that. It's just that the trim looks so good that it has to inevitably get sanded. I was just wondering what others did to keep their restored trim looking as good as possible for any length of time.

I found some stuff called Everbrite Coating on the internet and it looks promising. I bought some a couple of years ago but haven't tried it on any aluminum yet. I'm looking for some old aluminum trim that I can try it on without using it on the restored trim I already have.

https://www.everbritecoatings.com/aluminum_protection.htm

Anyone ever tried it?

 

[63SSIISFV2DFW]

Just an FYI...Pretty much any repair made on trim will show up very obviously after anodizing. It took me 2-3 sets of side trim to make a near perfect set after anodizing. Even some of my new parts(steering arms, sway bar endlinks, etc.) that I anodized, I had to strip, re-polish, and anodize again to get the finish I was looking for. Take a close look at an AN fitting and you can see all the scratches and imperfections.