Anodizing 66 Dart parts

-
rod7515

rod7515

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 18, 2013
Messages
1,738
Reaction score
588
Location
Red Lion PA
I made a call to a Business here in town that does Anodizing. I told him I had a grill, 2 headlight trims, frt hood trim, The rear GT trunk deck trim and I wanted to have the anodizing removed for my 66 Dart so I could clean and polish them. He ask if I was going to have him anodize them once they were done. I told him I planned on it and he quoted me $125 to do them all. I plan on taking them over to him on Wednesday or Thursday. I will take before and after pics.
Is this a decent price to pay? Ive never had anodizing done before nor have I ever talked to anyone that has.
A question I have is before the final anodizing is done do you paint the satin black around the headlight rings and the grill or do they get painted after the anodizing? I gong to start a thread on reworking the parts once the anodizing is removed. I have some straightening and touching up to do on each part. I didnt want to do these parts yet but in order to make sure everything fits up with the body I need the parts to be in a done condition.
Thanks Rod
 
rod7515 said:
I made a call to a Business here in town that does Anodizing. I told him I had a grill, 2 headlight trims, frt hood trim, The rear GT trunk deck trim and I wanted to have the anodizing removed for my 66 Dart so I could clean and polish them. He ask if I was going to have him anodize them once they were done. I told him I planned on it and he quoted me $125 to do them all. I plan on taking them over to him on Wednesday or Thursday. I will take before and after pics.
Is this a decent price to pay? Ive never had anodizing done before nor have I ever talked to anyone that has.
A question I have is before the final anodizing is done do you paint the satin black around the headlight rings and the grill or do they get painted after the anodizing? I gong to start a thread on reworking the parts once the anodizing is removed. I have some straightening and touching up to do on each part. I didnt want to do these parts yet but in order to make sure everything fits up with the body I need the parts to be in a done condition.
Thanks Rod
Click to expand...
If it comes out nice, I would think that is very reasonable. I have never had any parts re-anodized myself.
 
Do the anodizing first then paint, anodizing is a hard coat so you want it all done first. You know you have to have it all nicely polished before you have it done, It wont cover or hide any imperfections.
 
A decent price? I can't believe you're asking. Lol. Are they all perfectly straight? Anodized is such a pain.
 
Rod; You may be walking into a small nightmare.
Like Chrome shops, there are good anodize shops and bad.
The price you were quoted for all that stuf is drastically LOW.

I would suggest you take ONE part to him for a test run. Play stupid, say you've got the other stuf coming.

Find a shop that specializes in anodize for Car parts. Lotta these guys do fences, appliances and other stuf apart from Car parts.

Just redid some 68 Cuda Grilles that my Customer had anodized. They were so bad, I was able to scrape the anodize off with my fingernail. And he paid some serious green.
 
I did my mouldings at Totally Auto. Reason is that if there is any imperfections they can't blaim me after the mouldings are re-anodized again. Have them to do all the work and see how much that would be. Then you have two options before a decision is made.
 
If it's anodized he ought to be able to dye it whatever color. If it's painted black, have it dyed so after anodizing (but before sealing, and he ought to know that). Then paint chips aren't so bad.
 
Heres a few pics of the parts Im wanting to have the anodizing removed from. jos51700 you mention sealing. I thought the anodizing was the seal?
brian6pac, yes I dont look forward to the straightening and polishing of these parts.
Here are a few pics of the pieces I am going to have done.
Rod
DSCN0352.JPG
DSCN0366.JPG
DSCN0365.JPG
DSCN0360.JPG
 
Having parts stripped & reanodized is just like repainting a car, or having chrome plating redone it's all in the prep work. If it's prepped poorly, the finished product will not look as good as you expect it to. Dings & dents will stand out more after having the pieces redone. As mentioned above, there are good people, & bad. Someone also mentioned having just one piece done to see the quality of the work & that sounds like an excellent idea.
 
65dartcharger said:
I did my mouldings at Totally Auto. Reason is that if there is any imperfections they can't blaim me after the mouldings are re-anodized again. Have them to do all the work and see how much that would be. Then you have two options before a decision is made.
Click to expand...
Didnt know they did anodize work. I buy all my resto paint offa them. Dark Argent and Light Argent. Can be tuff to spray sometimes, and it aint cheap...but killa results. Chas is good people.

68 CUDA GRILL RH1.PNG
 
rod7515 said:
Heres a few pics of the parts Im wanting to have the anodizing removed from. jos51700 you mention sealing. I thought the anodizing was the seal?
brian6pac, yes I dont look forward to the straightening and polishing of these parts.
Here are a few pics of the pieces I am going to have done.
Rod
View attachment 1715133328 View attachment 1715133329 View attachment 1715133330 View attachment 1715133331
Click to expand...

THOSE are some really nice 66 Dart parts you have there, especially that Finish Panel. That Panel is next to impossible to find. I think that may be the first pair of 66 Dart Headlight Bezels I've ever seen that were not dented to crap...NICE.

The guy who suggested Totally Auto is dead on. You may wanna give them a call for the real Skinny. I would steer clear of that Local Guy. If he leaves them in Anodize remover Tank too long, they will be ruined.
 
The cost they quoted sounds too low which makes we wonder if they know how to do car parts properly.
Looks like you have nice parts to start with. Usually those aluminum pieces are really best up.
 
I stopped by the anodizing shop and dropped of my parts. I ask a few questions and he has done a lot of automotive restoration work. I was nervous and I let him know that. Told him it took me 3 years to collect these parts. He said stop by the shop tomorrow and they will be ready for pickup. So I plan on picking them up in the afternoon. I told him I may not get them back to him for many weeks maybe even months and he was ok just paying when they were completed. Guess the polishing and straightening starts tomorrow night! will do pics as I go.
Rod
 
Anodizing is an electro-chemical process that forms aluminum oxide on the surface. The surface preparation, cleaning of contaminants is very important. Preping, without the experience of process requirements, might be a disaster.

It may be similar to taking a disk sander on a drill, and discount store primer on a car body, then taking it to a painter for show finish....good shops will never take the job.

Sounds like Totally Auto is where to go, let them do all the work.
 
Last edited:
If you're doing enough of a restoration to be refurbishing trim parts like this, be advised that "anodizing" is not a specific enough thing to ask for. Brite Dip (or "brite dip anodizing", "bright anodizing", etc) is the process most of these parts were originally finished with.
 
I stripped mine myself.I made a trough out of pvc and end caps.After I glued the caps on,I cut it in half and soaked each piece in caustic soda for about a minute.When done rinsed them and cleaned with sos pads then polished.Still nice after 20 years with an occasional polish.
 
Dartman1965, are you saying you never put an anodizing back on? I was wondering if I could clear coat them once polished?
Rod
 
KitCarlson said:
Anodizing is an electro-chemical process that forms aluminum oxide on the surface. ...
Click to expand...
True, the basic definition, but "anodized" often also refers to additional processes such as "chromate conversion", termed "dual finish aluminum" per wikipedia. I think that is how they get the colors you see on aluminum fittings (black, red, blue). Re "Brite Dip" that SSD mentions (post 15), I found this post and it does says it was used on vintage automotive parts (nasty acid dip):
Aluminum Brite Dip Chemical Composition / Effective Polishing Techniques
Perhaps more ideas can be found on Airstream trailer websites since owners like them shiny and many people restore old ones.
 
I had my rear trunk finish panel for my 67 Dart GT done by “King of Trim” I think out of Cali. Wasn’t cheap but reasonable when I priced around. They specialize in bright dip anodizing which is how that part originally was produced then painted. It was completed within 4 weeks and was guaranteed for quality. Came out beautiful. Highly recommended.
Carl
 
LovetheA's said:
I had my rear trunk finish panel for my 67 Dart GT done by “King of Trim” I think out of Cali. Wasn’t cheap but reasonable when I priced around. They specialize in bright dip anodizing which is how that part originally was produced then painted. It was completed within 4 weeks and was guaranteed for quality. Came out beautiful. Highly recommended.
Carl
Click to expand...
Rod7515
A quote of $125.00 for all the anodizing work you specified seems extremely cheap. I’d be skeptical of quality.
Carl
 
Picked up the parts today and to me the stripping looks good.
I asked him about doing a bright dip anodizing finish. He told me that they do not do that because of the dangers involved in the process.
He also told me that he does not know anyone around this area that does a bright dip.
The shipping costs are to high to ship parts around so I will either polish these parts then have the same company anodize them for me or another option is to have them powder coated. I guess I could also shoot a few coats of clear coat on them as well?
Here are the de-anodized pics,
DSCN0373.JPG
DSCN0374.JPG
DSCN0375.JPG
DSCN0376.JPG
DSCN0377.JPG

Rod
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top