This is what I found….
If you can get new trims – just get them at whatever cost, as they are not available all the time – or some less than others.
The only options you have are
1) Use your old trims and try and re finish. I did, and my results are crap.
The correct finish is bright anodizing, but due to the years of corrosion - and with aluminium corroding like a worm it forms worm tracts deep into the aluminium... when you strip off the old anodizing, you then need to polish them out, but you just can’t get in deep, to get rid of worm holes completely, plus they need to be polished to a high finish to get the brightest finish, you can only polish so deep, otherwise the trim will look all wonky, but as I said polishing only does the surface and you can’t get into the worm holes of the corrosion.
When it gets anodized the worm holes cause the decolouration (what you see on mine)
However, if you don’t go the bright anodizing route, and go for statin finish, they come out more constant.
Now if your trim is in pretty good condition with little corrosion, you may get away this this when it goes back to the anodizers.
As you have seen, I tried it and mine look like crap – however all the internal ones came out great….
2) Chrome plate all the outside trims – not original look, but better than nothing, and if you can’t wait or get new, this is an option and all the car is a constant finish – so the window caps etc look the same.
3) Strip off the anodizing and polish the trims and apply a coat of lacquer – I’ve not done this and can’t comment on the longevity of the lacquer not peeling off, however with new high-quality paints I’m sure this is a great option, but this would be the cheapest and easiest way to get a good finish on your trims.
Options option options……
