Belt line trim aftermarket
- Thread starter scottau
- Start date
I purchased the hood Center Line trim lastyear from W&N and was my painter was able to get it to fit really nicely. Very happy with it
I looked into this, and apparently it’s very difficult to re-anodize old metal well. It commonly forms micro cracks that when anodized, make for spots and flaws in the appearance. There is a shop in TX that’s specializes in this, but they charge a small fortune to get it right.
we need to find a new shop that polishes and ceramic coats. Speedway did a great job, for the most part my belt trim looks great -
gwittman
Well-Known Member
I must have gotten lucky. I had the front aluminum trim on my 69 Fairlane Cobra reanodized after I stripped and polished it. It came out very well. I would not call it concourse because I did spend that much time polishing it, but it looks as good as the factory finish. That trim is thinner gauge than the trim on our Coupes. Maybe it is less prone to microcracking.
One thing that is important when polishing is to not smear the metal. That does create a problem when anodizing.
Pit corrosion is the problem when re-anodising. The pits can be deeper then what you sand off, leaving a pocket.
The pits can be really small, near invisible to the naked eye.
Then during the etching, the acids get stuck, and clthe leaches out afyerwards affecting the later anodizing layer. It turns into dull , milky spots.
Another issue with anodized surfaces is that they can also be attacked by some agressive cleaning agents used in car wash facilities. My 2019 Audi has dull spots from car wash trips, looks like spinder webs or fungus threads growing in the top layer.
That's why I never put my cars through a car wash.
The pits can be really small, near invisible to the naked eye.
Then during the etching, the acids get stuck, and clthe leaches out afyerwards affecting the later anodizing layer. It turns into dull , milky spots.
Another issue with anodized surfaces is that they can also be attacked by some agressive cleaning agents used in car wash facilities. My 2019 Audi has dull spots from car wash trips, looks like spinder webs or fungus threads growing in the top layer.
That's why I never put my cars through a car wash.