Bright trim repair

[MadScientist]

hi all,

I am doing a lot of finishing touches on the car and was wondering what people do for their bright moulding (drip rail, window, belt  etc) when it has small deformities, dings etc.  I saw in the Lyle Book that it is possible to repair this yourself, but I can picture just making it worse and then having to find new pieces!

Any comments greatly appreciated.

MS

[4402tuff4u]

I'm guessing that you want to remove a dent out of the trim. Obviously, most dents are from the outside surface in of the trim. Therefore you have to push the dent out from the back side. What I did was used a wooden dowel and I cut the end of the wooden dowel to the same contour as the inside of the trim piece - the good area, not the dent are ofcourse. The tip of the dowel has to fit in the inside of the trim piece and have the ends rounded off so you dont have any sharp edges. Then I went to the spot were the dent was and I lightly tapped it out. Makesure you have a towel folded on the table so that the trim piece does not scratch and it has a firm but soft surface. Keep tapping until you have the dent out as much as possible. Then get a very fine steel file and file the high areas (lightly file!). Sand the area with fine sand paper and work yourself to a finer grade sand paper. Then polish it out with stainless steel compound or aluminum depending on the trim you are working on. Then polish it with the white final compound. The book "Project Charger" walks through the whole repair steps. That's where I learned. I'm at work so I can't really tell you the sandpaper numbers and they sure matter on what exact sandpaper number you have to use. take your time and the trim will look like it never had a dent. My trim came out awesome thanks to that book!!!! 

[MadScientist]

Looks like Ive got a bunch of work cut out for me then since Ive got at least 2-3 dings per piece!  Thanks for the input!

MS

[JimShine]

The drip rail is reproduced. May be easier just to replace and concentrate on the non-reproduced items.

[MadScientist]

Who is making them?

thats probably a good thing since those are harder to work on that the belt moulding IMHO (its wider)

I'll have to consider that

MS

[JimShine]

I have no idea who makes them. Year One has them for $140 a set and its the entire drip rail. The A pillar, joint elbow and lengthwise trim.

http://www.yearone.com/serverfiles/part.asp?pid=BN99&c=0&e=0&cat=1&hid=120AF5192

[MadScientist]

I wonder how they fit?  I might have to give them a try, thanks for the info.

for the rest of it, I'll have to check out eastwood for their dolly set I guess and get to pounding...