polishing rear window trim

[sdstang]

My car is at paint and I'm pulling my windows out to work on them. On the rear ones I need to replace the weather stripping and hope the trim was SS so I could polish out scratches. Anybody know if its stainless steel or chrome?

Thanks,

Jim

 

[mrmach1]

Unfortunately it's not it's anodized aluminum. I bought a set just for that reason and sent to a friend to have them buffed and found out the hard way.

 

[c9zx]

It is anodized aluminum. The anodizing must be removed before the aluminum can be polished. There are several older posts on the subject.

Chuck

 

[72HCODE]

it is bright dipped aluminum.

if you polish the aluminum and remove the bright dip coating it will look nice for a couple days then turn into a grey discolored mess.

to correctly deal with the trim it is stripped of the bright dip, polished, then re-coated in bright dip.

bright dip is a thick clear coat that is flexible. there are trim restorers that can deal with bright dip.

do not try and polish it yourself you will just make a mess.

the aluminum ford used wasn't great quality and it has large pours under the skin, when you polish the aluminum aggressively to mirror out the surface you eat through the surface skin of the aluminum and open up pours or holes in the metal, you end up with a part that looks like a shot gun blasted it, and it will be shinny for a couple of days.

 

[c9zx]

Perhaps my set is an exception but, they have been on my car since late 2011 and have not turned into a grey mess or discolored. If they ever begin to discolor due to oxidation, they can be easily polished on the car.

Chuck

 

[sdstang]

Perhaps my set is an exception but, they have been on my car since late 2011 and have not turned into a grey mess or discolored. If they ever begin to discolor due to oxidation, they can be easily polished on the car.

Chuck

Chuck,

Did you strip the coating off? I am talking about the rear window piece that attaches to the rear window.

-Jim

 

[71_badmach]

The picture looks like quarter glass? Just trying to help with the description. The quarter glass trim seems to be more shiny to me than the trim around the windshield and rear glass.

 

[rocket366]

The windshield trim on my 73 is hard like SS and yes

it had a coating on it. It was milky looking and I polished my A*

off with a wheel and white rouge and got it shiny but it only

lasted a year as now it's showing signs of clouding up again.

Here on the west coast of CA most of the polishers/platers have dried up

because of the EPA.

I'm not sure what to do with the bright work now. I bought at some real

expense the rear window trim that is original but dull also.

I've seen classics where the bright work was painted satin black. Is that where where

we're at these days?

Paul

 

[sdstang]

The picture looks like quarter glass? Just trying to help with the description. The quarter glass trim seems to be more shiny to me than the trim around the windshield and rear glass.

Yes sorry quarter glass.

 

[judge]

The quarter trims are stainless. You can buff them. I use the White bar rouge and a 3400rpm buffer.

 

[c9zx]

I thought you were talking about the rear fastback window trim. Chuck

 

[mustang7173]

Good Morning rocket366,

As with my vinyl top trim with the same dull coating, I went to my ceramic coating vendor and we decided that the ceramic satin coating would be a good solution. I would prefer to have the bright works, but due to expense of anodizing, this worked out pretty good.

I am also looking at doing the front and back glass trim since we all know that the reproduction stuff is way too thin. There are several threads on the forum about members messing up this high dollar trim.

This my vendor I use.

http://www.getcoated.com/

Maybe you can locate a vendor close by.

mustang7173 :thankyouyellow: :bravo:

The windshield trim on my 73 is hard like SS and yes

it had a coating on it. It was milky looking and I polished my A*

off with a wheel and white rouge and got it shiny but it only

lasted a year as now it's showing signs of clouding up again.

Here on the west coast of CA most of the polishers/platers have dried up

because of the EPA.

I'm not sure what to do with the bright work now. I bought at some real

expense the rear window trim that is original but dull also.

I've seen classics where the bright work was painted satin black. Is that where where

we're at these days?

Paul