How To: Stainless Steel Trim Restoration

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waggin

waggin

moving on ain't easy if you drive a Ford :p
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waggin submitted a new Article:

How To: Stainless Steel Trim Restoration

This will be an ongoing thread with how to pics and some words typed to make the pics interesting (kinda like playboy magazine) but for stainless trim restoration LoL. First you need a beat up old crusty piece of stainless steel trim that you actually want to put on your car. For this I got lucky and just happened to have a set of stone guards that dartnewbie wanted for his car,he offered to buy them from me after sending me some free headlight rings for my 64 dart convertible,but I felt it would be better to trade him for the rings.so anywho for mr I sent waggin some free headlight rings dude of the dart this Bud's for you!! and I guess you guys will want a how to with pics on dart headlight ring restoration next? for that trick i'll have to pull a rabbit out of my hat but that's gonna be later. Here are some pics of the crappy old crusty dented up scratched ugleeee nasty gnarley bent up cruddy stone guards (we'll use these as the example so you guys can see what can be fixed). Here's a pic of them before the magic begins. Stay tuned for further installments. Just remember nuthin up my sleeve and presto chang-o hee hee hee the suspense is killin ya isn't it.

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You will need
1. a freestanding bench grinder 3/4 hp or better with buffing wheels
2.buffing compound (I use the white)
3.d/a sander with various sandpapers 120,220,320,800,1000,1200,and 1500 grit papers the last 4 grits are for use with light amounts of water ( I dip the d/a in pan with water and a lil soap)
4.wet or dry hand sandpaper in 320,400,800,1000,1500 and 2000 grit
5.hammers dollies chisels flat and pointy and a vice to mount a dolly in
6.Beer
7.gloves (so your hand don't freeze while holding the beer) and so you don't burn yourself while polishing the stainless
8.time and patience
9.probably my address to ship your stainless to cuz this sure looks a lot like work! .......It
is!
10.small hand held grinder for the ruff stuff

Without further adooooooo, here is some pics of the tools needed. The reallyyyyyyyy big hammer is just in case you don't get the desired results, the old bent up dart wheel cover is for the water for wet sanding with the d/a sander. The angle grinder is for removing the high spots after using the chisels and punches to remove the low spots from the backside. The hammers and dollies are for knocking the dents and dings out and the rest of the stuff is for smoothing over your handy work with the grinder and hammers and stuff like that. I didn't post photos of the beer because you may prefer a different brand.

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Here is some pics of the work in progress. You will notice some nasty hammer marks, grinder marks, etc looking at the pics (not for the faint of heart) so be brave and look on. The process starts with cleaning the piece with a scotchbrite and soap & water so you can see the highs and lows. Then breaking out the hammers and dollies and pounding the living (censored) out of the nasty old pile of (censored) till it looks straight again....I may have exaggerated that A BIT(lil' bit)anywhooooo, gently attack with the hammers and dollies and punches and chisels till it starts to look like something out of a frankenstein movie, then with the d/a and 320 scuff the areas you have worked so that you can see the low spots and work them out and d/a again till you see most of the low spots are gone,there will be dimples and such sticking up on the purty side but that is what the angle grinder with 80 grit is for.so take the angle grinder and wield it like a sword and attack all the high spots on the purty side till it starts to or does look like you have removed all the low spots. more later gotta do some "hunny Do's"

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Well finally back from the swap meet,the sun and the customers were brutal.but here I am to write the next chapter for you guys. It's hard for me to take pics while I am hammering and dolly'in so use your imagination ( kinda looks like a monkey tryin to(censored) a football. here are some more pics the first one is the d/a sanding after the grinding work and the second one is d/a/sanded with 800,1000,1200 and the 1500 grit on a d/a wet.

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Well I somehow lost the pics of me hand sanding the beastie with the 1500 and the 2000 grit sandpaper and nobody to shoot the pics of me polishing these out so I guess it's time to pull the rabbit out of my hat and show ya'll the "bunny" hah! I found it the first pic is with the 2000 grit sanding scratches and the last ones are the finished product and for my last trick I have made them disappear. They are in the trunk of the duster ready for shipping to their new owner and a place they can call home! :cheers:

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Here are some pics of the rear window trim for a 72 dart that was on the cover of Mopar Muscle. When working with small dings such as the one in the pic you can use a small blunt punch to tap it out gently, to completely remove it you may need to press it out to the point it becomes a small dimple and grind down the high spot, then d/a then wetsand and polish. After you play with this a while you will get the feel for what needs to be done to achieve show quality. What I have found is that once you have it looking awesome with the d/a sander it is best to go back to the hand wet sanding the length of the piece and to buff the opposite direction of the grain from the sandpaper. While wet sanding with the fine grits of paper look over the part for any grind marks and you may have to go back with a coarser grit paper to remove them but the effort is well worth it. You can take junk quality parts and bring them to show quality if you put the time and effort into it.

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Waggin, you're a nut! But I've seen your stainless and aluminum trim repairs and they are impressive (but I'd rather see the girls of Playboy, hee, hee!). Readers, this is going to be good. Curtis has the patience of Job in the bible and takes a lot of pride in his work. Seems I'm always learning something from him!
Pat
 
im waiting. PFogel everytime you post i chuckle thinking about mclovin (Fogel) in superbad. that is one funny movie
 
Trust me,Its' a lot of work.

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Hey Waggin: I'm ready to start. I've alreay got #6 and i wont need the gloves because my beer don't last that long. It would be nice to see pics of the type of tools that you will be using. Thanks. I didn't know you did this kind of thing. Definately some talent on this board. We're watching
Small Block
 
Gee Waggin, I just got home from work (look at the time stamp) and what a plesant surprise from you. Kinda ruins the fun opening the box when you send them but its even better to watch how you fixed them. I really didn't expect you put so much work into them but it is indeed really appreciated along with the information you are passing in the process. Another example of how far fellow members will go to help somone out. Keep it up and I might have to put a good guy alert out on ya!:cheers:
 
trust me on this one,most people would have tossed these in the garbage bin a long time ago,I still have the big hammer in case I don't get the desired results LoL,It's 4 28 am and I'm heading off to the swap meet to sell junk now ,will try to post more in progress pic's tonight,Ya'll have a good day!!
 
Very very impressive!! Now I feel guilty on the trade. I want to see what you can do with the rings I sent you so be sure to post the same magical pictures of those as you did with the stone guards. Can't wait to put those on the car. Will definately post a picture for all to see your great work.
 
i am really glad you decided to show this!! i was trying to figure out what to do for my windsheild trim. would the thin windsheild trim hold up against the buffer?? im kinda nervous about bending it cause its in good shape.




jason
 
about 5 hours here and there, but I just could'nt let a good deed go unrewarded,richard went out of his way to get me the headlight rings and never even asked for a penny for even the shipping,when he inquired about a price for the stone gaurds it was like hmmm how bout a trade?and all was good till I got bored and just decided that he needed a better set for his sweet lil' dart,then it became an idea to do another how to thread such as this one ,I have to fix up a lot of stuff or do without so hopefully these how to' threads will allow more to enjoy what they have when better seems so out of reach, a little spit and polish will and trash will become treasure to those who don't mind a lil' "dumpster divin" many people share their knowledge and skills for the benefit of all,that's why F.A.B.O. is one of the best car sites on the planet!


Uggleeeeyyy Cragar wheel restoration

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Hey Ya'll I got to playing around with the idea of how to make some cragar wheels I bought on a 63 valiant look a lil bit better and I'll try to post the pics of the progress and hopefully it will help someone out. Start off by taking and cleaning as much of the wheel as you can with sos pad (make sure to use a new one with plenty of soap still on it so you don't scratch the chrome) then take a soft car wash brush and clean away the residue. Then dry the wheel. Then use a die grinder with a wire wheel (about an inch around,the cup type) to clean in between the spokes as best as you can and also around the rim area that usually pits a lil bit. Then break out the fine line tape and mask around the rim and then mask of the spokes then take regular masking tape to the rest of it. You can paint them argent if you want but I used sem trim paint to see how it would look. You be the judge of the results I'm quite happy with them. Now the part of the rim near the valve stem that also gets pitted you can wire wheel it also and then brush on a lil chrome paint to hide the discoloration of the pits. I like the results.

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I watched Curtis Dawg work those two trim pieces and he easily has 5-hrs in them. I had a few beers (I bought this time!) and supervised LOL! One look at that one headlight bezel makes me believe that Waggin is going to bondo it and paint it the color of the car! Good luck to all you guys on this thread that are learning from Professor Curtis!
Pat
 
waggin said:
Here are some pics of the rear window trim for a 72 dart that was on the cover of mopar muscle.
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Hey Waggin,
When you start on the headlight rings, may I suggest a tripod & remote trigger for the camera?
That way we can see ya bangin & tappin!!! (didn't sound right)
#2=
That way we can see you reshaping the stainless with the proper tools & proceedures!:-D

After it's set up you can trigger the remote with your toe!!!:toothy10:

Be looking foward to the rings!!!
 
Ok great job showing us a Cinderella trick on stainless now how about those headlight rings. :happy1:
 
I'm guessin I will need to show them headlight rings some "puppie Love" so since they are anodized aluminum we will need some dish gloves,scotchbrite pads and some easy off oven cleaner to remove the anodizing and the paint,this job should be done outdoors cause the smell of that stuff will gagg a maggot! I'll gather the needed supplies and see about getting started here soon.........Maybe......Oh you will need more Beer..........lot's more beer :cheers:
 
Great stuff waggs'!! I need to get myself a bench grinder to go along with the left-handers...they help with the patience part!!
 
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