I promise I'm not drunk :drunk: and I haven't been smoking my socks. I've restored every piece of SS trim on my '70 Cuda by spending countless hours sanding and polishing every dent, nick, scratch and imperfection out of all my original 47 year old SS trim pieces except the belt moldings that go on top of the doors and the rear quarter panels by the back quarter windows. Today I pulled those belt moldings out of storage to begin sanding and then polishing them and the 180 grit W & D sandpaper didn't even begin to cut into them like it did on all the other trim pieces I've restored. All it did was put some scratches in the finish. Upon closer examination, these pieces looked like they might actually be chrome plated instead of stainless steel. So my question is, are the OEM belt moldings on a 70 Cuda chrome plated or have I just lost my mind, again? :-[ :dunno: :looney: :crazytalk:
They aren't stainless, they are aluminum with a bright dip anodized coating.... The coating is hard to get through... Oven cleaner or an alkaline dip to remove the coating then polish the trim.... After the coating is gone you'll be using polish every year to keep it nice & shiny...
If you choose to go with a dip process a piece of PVC pipe with caps work well as a container..
Thanks Wild R/T. :twothumbsup: I'll blast them in my blast cabinet and then polish. As long as I'm going to be polishing all the rest of the SS trim, what's a few more pieces.
I don't think thats a good idea... Might want to try a small part first... Thin aluminum warps & pits easily..
heres a video, he broke it up in segments so follow the series to see the result..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PenOoZDMFew
I polished my originals till they were almost mirror then sent then out to be anodized.
They have the correct aluminum haze look like originals were when new.
The repro's I believe are stainless steel and will shine like chrome if that's what you're after.
I'm pretty sure blasting will damage them. Better to strip them chemically.