How much should I expect to pay to have someone polish all trim pieces?

[dspaulding70]

I have read all of the posts on the site regarding doing it yourself and even gave it a try......and over an hour later, I had 1 piece done and it looked like my 8 year old did it.  I have come to the reality that I must outsource this task to those that are more skilled than I.

Any idea what would be a reasonable price to expect?

[68hardchargerrt]

I can't tell you for sure, but I am from NY and the owner of the car that I painted ('71 Cuda) took what he thought was all of his trim pieces to a resto shop here on Long Island, and it ran him $1.600.00 .  Granted, all of the dings, scratches, dents were fixed and they came back looking better than they ever did from the factory- I mean perfect.  Then he realized he other pieces that he forgot, and it was going to be a few hundred more.  He drew the line there and is holding out for a while.

I think that is a ton of money, but, I also know from experience that it is extremely labor intensive.  No good shop or skilled person is going to work for $5.00 and hour. 

Just passing on what I have experienced.  Hope this helps somewhat and good luck!!

[gasoline_24]

Mine are currently at the shop and the guy is taking forever.  He is charging $8.50 a foot.  There is about 100 feet of stainless.  This does not include those pieces attached to the actual windows.  I forgot some as well, but since he hasn't started I will drop this off for him to finish as well.

[brant]

I did mine myself and yes, It takes forever. My friend had me do his trim and it turned out amazing, but it took months. I'd do one piece per session as it's incredibly boring. Some pieces can be done in 30 minutes, others a couple hours. It's so easy to mess a it up after spending an hour on it. Can be incredibly frustrating. 

I want to do mine over again, but have another car to build. I've learned how to spend my time more wisely.

[daytonalo]

It is always fun when you launch a piece across the room !!!

[hutch]

I did all of mine on my 73 and it took me about a week of evenings.  Just buy a nice bench grinder and put on a polishing pad.  Its not hard to do and you will save a ton of cash.

[Doright]

After polishing do all the peices need to be re anodized so it doesnt fade?

I repolished some of the trim on one of my Plymouths and its already starting to fade

[4aThrill]

I have polished with a kit I got off the web that goes on a drill  , done it inside the house when the wife was gone  just make sure to put plenty of plastic down. did the sill plates first turned out outstanding, now I just have to rig something up to hold the drill or actually find a nice bench grinder and somewhere to put it.