Does anyone know of a good source for getting my stainless trim polished(Wheel well moldings,etc)?I have one source,but he charges $9.00 per foot,just thought there might be a cheaper source out there. Thanks,Jeff
Jeff: At one time a couple of years ago I priced all listings for stainless service in Hemmings. The best price then was Stainlessresto.com (716)6834018 [Bob]run out a a man's backyard shop in Deprew NY. Excellant work. I have used him several times including recently, but I did not price compare for the recent work. I do remember that the price difference among vendors 2 years ago was huge. When able I ship pieces to him in large diameter plumbers plastic drain pipe with the ends taped. You cannot use this method with wheel moldings. I am facing the same issue of doing moldings and am worried about how to ship without risk of damage. Any thoughts on this? Jim Lore
Why not do it yourself? Get a polishing kit (Eastwood Etc.) and a bench grinder and have a go. I did all my trim myself, even the rocker trim, IMHO it turned out really well. Not that hard to do , even the dent removal wasn't too bad, just time consuming. just be careful , use leather gloves and eye protection, practice on an old piece first. I even saved some WS trim that had grinder marks in it that I was going to throw out. :TU: . Adam.
Adam: I have done quite a bit of polishing on stiffer pieces. On the thin pieces I have visions of a buffing thread catching a screw hole the whole piece turning into a wad of metal. Rockers are easy by comparison. I have done them myself too. Also some dings had best be left to a person in the business. Jim Lore
build a box To ship your w/o mouldings without risk of damage build a simple wooden box.Get a piece of plywood or old paneling cut out two equal size pieces for a top and bottom and get a 1" by 3" board for the sides and some screws to hold it together.Makes a strudy reuseable box to ship to and fro.
Jeff, If your a DO-IT-YOURSELFer check out a book called "How to Restore Metal Auto Trim" By Jeff Lilly. Has great tips and ways to get started. I refer to it often. Or pay 9.00 a foot, which is going rate. Also, for you guys doing the thin pieces. The book says to tape the piece to a board. Then you have less chance of bending or loosing it. Jerry
Jerry; The wheel well moldings are curved. Seems to me that taping these to a board would tough since you are trying to get to the surface on the inside of the radius if you will. I would like to get the book though for the pieces I am willing to tackle. Thanks for the tip. Jim Lore
If the piece is thin and straight, a 3" or 4" diameter pcv pipe would be just about bullet-proof as a shipping container.
As an ex-safety officer I was concerned with some (obviously well meaning) advice regarding polishing these items at home. True, you must be careful when using any power tools and safety glasses are a non-negotiable and mandatory item but NEVER (I'll repeat) NEVER!!! use leather gloves when operating any type of rotating machinery. This lesson has been learned very well by the few unlucky individuals who have had the nasty experience of having the glove caught in the rotating wheels and...well...you can imagine the rest. It's better to lose the tip of a finger or suffer a few mild sparks than to have the glove getting caught and pulling your hand around the shaft. These machines (obviously the larger pedestal grinders) have been known to pull an operator into the wheel by grabbing the glove and...kill them - I've seen the pictures. On a smaller scale the typical smaller bench grinder that we all have at home is a fierce little "hand grinder" none the less and will do enormous damage to the forearm and hand if it gets caught up in the rotation of the wheel. How do you think you would go trying to stop a grinding wheel from turning just by grabbing it with a leather covered glove? If you answered anything but "impossible" then you you don't understand the power that these things posess. People, take my word for this. I've seen it happen and I almost feel sick everytime I think about that poor screaming man wrapped around the wheel....I'll stop there but you get the picture. NO GLOVES AROUND GRINDERS please!!! Stay safe, the pain's just not worth the risk.
Hi Jim , One of the easier parts I did was the wheel well trim, the only part I damaged , and it was entirely my fault, was a piece of drip rail moulding. It got mauled up pretty good:ball: . This leads me to my other point, That piece sliced through two layers of leather, it would have opened me up like a grape if I was holding it with bare hands. Bill, I agree entirely about gloves and spinning machinery, I should have clarified, I was wearing a tight fitting pair of old M/C gloves, not a pair of floppy, ill fitting, hardware store gloves. If the buffing wheel makes you nervous , you can do a good job using fine fine sandpaper and Autosol by hand, it just takes a long time. Something to do while watching the tube. Adam.
One of the hardest things for me as a safety officer was to get people to stop wearing gloves while using spinning machinery such as grinders, buffers, lathes, milling machines etc. Most people (and I was one of them until it was pointed out to me) believe that you should wear gloves to protect your hands from sparks, swarfe (spiral metal shavings) and heat. My job was to point out the larger danger which was that if that glove got caught in anything spinning it would be doubtful that you could stop it from takng your finger, hand, arm, shoulder and yes even your whole body (in the case of a lathe accident) can be flipped over and slammed into what ever was closest. I personally know 3 people who have suffered a serious and permanent injury from a machine which grabbed gloves and in one case loose clothing. One was using a large pedestal grinder, one a set of industrial steel rollers and the other a milling machine. They where all horrible. :Smarty: Don't wear gloves around spinning machinery and keep your clothes tucked in close and tie your hair back if it's long. Keep your stops adjusted as close to the grinding wheel as possible and never use stops on a buff. Adam, in a way you where lucky and I'm glad. Had the gloves not ripped they could have dragged you into the spinning buff or even pulled you off balance and tripped you into the spinning wheel. I'll presume you've had lots of experience and knew what you where doing. You've probably even had the odd piece fly out of your hands unexpectedly but this message is for the people who hadn't even considered the dangers of wearing leather gloves around spinning machinery. I know it's a downer to talk about these things but if one person saves themselves from serious injury from reading this then I'll be happy. Once a safety officer always a safety officer I suppose. I just don't want anyone to hurt themselves is all. Lesson over, everybody back to your projects.
Use a foot operated on/off switch on your grinders/buffers and greatly reduce your risk of serious injury. My .02 cents.
guys....he's not joking...the commercial stand buffers (Baldor on down to the Harbor Freight $99 version) produce A LOT of torque...wheelwell trim is one of the more dangerous pieces you can do..it's long, curved and has multiple faces that need polishing. Fortunately for us we don't have to worry about polishing out headlight bezels...I watched a pretty scary incident when a guy tried to polish out an aluminum 69 Chevelle bezel and caught the inner edge on a 1 hp Baldor machine....needless to say after that he decided no more headlight bezels. To get this stuff to a mirror finish takes a large amount of time either hand sanding/dent removing and almost as much time on the buffer. The commercial guys use more aggressive steps like belt sanding, etc...Some of this stuff is worth farming out or buying new repro(for an original look)...I honestly doubt any of this stainless had the mirror chrome like look that you see on refinished pieces today...the manufacturer simply stamped and shipped the product from large sheets of stainless. Good Luck Patton
http://carsmeticsinc.com Lou is owner of the shop, and is a friend of mine who does EXCELLENT metal polishing and powder coating He's not cheap....but you get what you pay for. he doesn't remove dents either When i restored my GS, he did just about every piece of stainless on my car - Window surrounds, wiper arms, hood surrounds, wheel well mouldings....etc and i constantly get compliments on them. He had a TH400 tranny once that he completely polished....I should have taken pix !! He also does alot of aftermarket stuff....like the stainless Impala SS emblems that Moroso sells If you can ship it to him, he'll polish it. Tell him I sent you, and recieve a free 10% addition to your orderou:
How can you tell if trim is stainless or chrome steel ? Hey, check out this link on polishing stainless that I found. http://www.caswellplating.com/buffs/buffman.htm Gary
Shucks, I didn't even use a bench grinder! I just put my variable speed drill in a vise and used it to spin the 4 inch buff. Worked great!
Thanks for the interesting link. No wonder I had such a hard time with my stainless trim........that link said I should be using a green bar for stainless......my polishing kit had everything but green. ou:
Hi Bill, I do a lot of buffing at the restoration shop I work at. I've always worn leather gloves. While I respect what you've seen pictures of, and certainly don't underestimate the power of the machine, are you suggesting no skin protection at all for the hands?
