Polishing grille

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RobW75

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Hey all, just a quick question about polishing trim. I just bought a set of grilles and bezels for my '67 Fastback and while I know you can lightly sand and polish stainless trim, is there anything I can do on the bezels? What are they made of? They are in great shape structurally, no dents or bends, but they have some pretty mean scratches here and there. Not looking to go crazy on them, the car will be a driver but I'd like to shine them up as best as they can be. Thanks for any tips! Rob
 
Rob, the grill surrounds are aluminum. They are hard anodized. You will need to remove the anodize with easy off oven cleaner or straight lye. Once the anodizing is removed sand with 1200 grit wet sandpaper and polish with green or white rouge on a buffing wheel. I just did mine in my build thread. They are nice now!
 
Once you get them polished you will need to detail all the painted surfaces. I still need to paint the black stripe in my trim. I used silver for the grill surrounds.
 

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The inner headlight bezel is plated potmetal. I found that Turtle Wax Chome polish works AWESOME on those. I spent hours with baking soda on the grill bezels and the wax took minutes literally!
 
R4Sedan said:
cuudak, grill and bezels look awesome.
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Hey thanks!
I got somewhere around 20-30 hours in them. Lot of work. I have no way to reanodize them so they will need to be polished often. Mine had several dents and dings in them. I used a body hammer and a hard plastic block to straighten them. Used a fine metal file for the imperfections and sanded and sanded and sanded to get them smooth then buffed for hours. They look good in the car too!

The stainless trim is much easier to work with!
 
Have seen some in past that look "yellow-ish" when finished... what did they do wrong????
Getting ready to do mine as well- but that look scared me.
 
Wow those do look great, nice work! I'll have to find a set of headlight bezels as well and do them up the same. My originals are beat beyond repair I think. Thanks again for the pics and tips! Rob
 
DA69RT GT said:
Have seen some in past that look "yellow-ish" when finished... what did they do wrong????
Getting ready to do mine as well- but that look scared me.
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That is the anodizing. Obviously they didn't remove it.
 
RobW75 said:
Wow those do look great, nice work! I'll have to find a set of headlight bezels as well and do them up the same. My originals are beat beyond repair I think. Thanks again for the pics and tips! Rob
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No problem!:cheers: 68 is the same bezel as the 67. The inner grills are different but everything else will work.
 
Here they are in the car, [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKrLtfG2qic"]1968 Plymouth Barracuda Formula S 383 Fastback Turbo - YouTube[/ame]

Look much better installed. Still need to paint the black stripe.
 
R4Sedan said:
Leanna, is the go to gal for that.(CUDACHICK)
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Thanks for the mention R4!

Here's a little different approach with a combination of serious dent removal, polishing and powder coating ... complete with light argent in the centers and the black stripe.

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And this is a little sampling of what I started out with. :-D

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Not perfect by a long shot ... but better.
 
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