C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

[Stuart F.]

I recently unwrapped my original rocker panels, grill surround, and step plates which I replaced with NOS pieces back in 1976. They all seem to be in pretty good condition, i.e. straight, no dents or non-stock bends, etc. with the exception of the step plates which have some military boot scratches in them. I believe with a good clean up and polishing they might be as good as my current NOS pieces. My main concerns for these pieces is primarily with what appears to be an anodized like finish which I'm afraid I would destroy by any of the usual polishing methods or compounds. The rocker panels have what may just be some road tar specs and nicks in the area that would have been right behind the front wheels (from, you know, off roading back in the day). I know, once clean, I can repaint the black in the grooves real well as I redid my hood screens near perfect back then.

Does anyone have experience with rehabing these pieces that can offer some suggestions or advice?

Now before anyone questions why I changed them out in the first place, let me remind you how cheap these pieces USED TO BE!

Stu Fox

[Stuart F.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

I was going to say something sarcastic, but I won't. As always, I'll spend my efforts researching the various venues until I figure out an approach.
Thank you all for looking anyway.

Stu Fox

[Dennis C.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Does anyone have experience with rehabing these pieces that can offer some suggestions or advice?

Stu Fox[/quote]

Stuart,

The sill plates for the '61 I am restoring were pretty decent, but did have a few nicks in them. I checked out reproduction pieces but didn't like how they looked. They were also much thinner then the set I had.

I called around looking for someone who could guide me in restoring them and ended up having a long talk with Richard Fortier about them.

According to Richard, before polishing, the old anodizing needs to be removed. After polishing they need to be re-anodized.

I ended up sending them to him to have done.

Hope this helps.

Dennis

[Stuart F.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Dennis;

Thanks for the response. It helps a lot for, believe it or not, that is the first time anyone has confirmed that these pieces are indeed anodized. The information has probably been out there a long time, but I never saw it or paid attention to it. That helps me make a decision on what to do with them because I'm not sure if I want to spend a whole lot of money rehabing them as what I have on the car now is just fine.

Thanks again.

Stu Fox

[Dennis C.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Dennis;

Thanks for the response. It helps a lot for, believe it or not, that is the first time anyone has confirmed that these pieces are indeed anodized. The information has probably been out there a long time, but I never saw it or paid attention to it. That helps me make a decision on what to do with them because I'm not sure if I want to spend a whole lot of money rehabing them as what I have on the car now is just fine.

Thanks again.

Stu Fox

Stuart,

Just so there is no confusion, I have no knowledge of C2 finishes, I was talking about the sill plates on a C1. I only mentioned it because you thought they were anodized.

Regards,

Dennis

[Stuart F.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Dennis;

Not to worry. There is no confusion here. I have known many C-1's in my day as well and I know the finish on specially the step plates is of an anodized look. The balance of your information regarding how to deal with them, i.e. "strip, remove scrathes and blems, then re-anodize" is good infor for me to make my determination, as I said.

Thanks again.

Stu Fox

[James B.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Stu & Dennis,

After reading this post, I am in the process of having my 1965 original rocker panels re-conditioned. The process explained below is correct. The old anodizing must be removed first, once completed, the road rash, minor dents, etc sanded smooth and dents repaired. This process will remove some of the existing aluminum and care must be taken not to thin the aluminum. The panels are then polished to a high gloss. Once complete, the next step is to "bright dip anodize", this will bring the panels to the original finish. To find a plating company that performs this process is hard to find because the chemicals used are very nasty. My panels are at the plater now having the bright dip anodizing completed. I had a different plater clean and polish the panels. He did not perforn the bright dip. I will be picking up my panels this Friday and I can let you know how they turned out. I am painting the black finish to complete the panels and then mount in place. If others are interested I can supply the platers contact information. Lastly, I could have purchased repro panels, but I wanted to re-install the originals that came on the car when delivered new, and knowing that I would pay a little more than the repro's.

Jim

[Dennis C.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Jim,

Thanks for sharing this. I know what you mean, I have also spent a good deal trying to have original parts restored, rather then just buying reproductions.

I would be interested in how your parts come out.

Regards,

Dennis

[Stuart F.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Jim;

Yes, indeed, we will be looking forward to an updated post on how your panels turned out. This is exactly the information I would like to properly evaluate what I should do with my originals. Here in the central Florida area there are a lot of vendors including those that do plating for car restorations, etc. It would be nice if you could share at least a ballpark figure on your costs - in the clear or via PM.

Stu Fox

[William G.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

I can shed a little light on refinishing anodized aluminum parts such as rocker moldings. Here in my area we have a specialty plater that has a large enough tank to bright anodize rocker moldings. However my results have been less than spectacular. You can remove the anodize yourself using Drano which is sodium hydroxide. Obviously it is a nasty substance requiring great care and personal protection. It is necessary to scrub with a scotch brite pad . I did it to a pair of 66 rocker moldings on a sheet of plastic in my driveway. The best and quickest way to strip anodize is to let the anodizer strip the pieces for you. Next you will have to have the pieces highly polished. My rocker moldings were very nice originals off a 30k mile car . They had the usual pits that are extremely difficult to remove unless you abrade away a lot of aluminim. You had better know what you are doing when you remove the material otherwise you will end up with a pretty poor looking wavy surface. The made a big mistake in deciding to anodize over some minor pits and when my anodizer processed the part each pit bloomed into a white spot. It was not pretty. So the moral of this post is that quality of the final polished surface is very important. The plater charged me $170 . I think he did a good job but the resulting blooms from the pits left the parts unusable.

[James B.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

To all,

Great discussion thus far, I don't know why it took me this long to join this organization. The costs thus far for both panels are: $400.00 to remove old anodize, remove all defects, pitting, dents, and highly polish each panel. The cost to "bright dip anodize both panels, $200.00. I will complete the paint work to the panels myself. Reproduction panels on average are $450.00 from any of the well known suppliers. Even though I spent about $150.00 more to recondition my originals, I will be installing my original panels on the car. This is how I justify the extra money in my mind. Just me! others may view this differently. I am a little concerned reading the last post about how the anodize job turned out. I hope that I can report back favorable results to you. I will post my results when I recieve my panels back. I am sure others would like to have their panels reconditioned also. My 65 coupe has 47,000 original miles on it so the panels were not too bad.

Thanks,

Jim

[Terry M.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

A local chapter friend had his original 1972 rockers stripped, did the polishing himself, and then had them anodized. He too reported paying more than reproduction panels, but the results were spectacular. I would have rated them "over restored" and told him so. He did it his way, and figured they would grow a patena with time. He had the advantage of having the tabs on the bottom, which the reproductions lack.
I tried my darnedest to get him to do a story for The Restorer, but no joy.

[James B.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

To all,

I picked up my rocker mouldings last evening and after I removed them from the wrappings, I am very pleased with the final results and glad I went to the expense to have this done. The bright dip anodize looks excellent with no imperfections. There is no wavy look when observed at many angles in the sunlight, which could have resulted when the imperfections were removed during the clean up process. I believe the high polishing process was the key to the final results. The two platers I used for this work did am excellent job. The time frame for this was 4 weeks total. I did all the pick up and dropping off of the panels to each plating company. The rockers look brand new!! and will mask and paint this weekend and re-install.

Jim

[Paul J.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

If you Google "removing anodizing from aluminum", you get several web sites that explain the process and give step by step instructions, including some interesting devices such as using PVC pipe for a container for rocker panels. I was looking into this several weeks ago and I don't remember the best sites.

[Stuart F.]

Re: C-2 Aluminum Trim Refurbishing

Interesting. Thanks Paul. It would be nice to get my originals back to new condition. Perhaps the best way would be to start with something smaller like my grill surrounds, then the step plates and finally the rocker panels. They are all in great condition otherwise - just cosmetics.

Stu Fox