Trim Trim

[Bill 74 3.0 CS]

Guys, the body shop that is working on my Fjord 3.0 CS has an older Baikal blue 3.0 CSI which is far more advanced in terms of progress of work, because it entered his shop months prior to mine. The mechanic attempted to strip the protective coating from the chrome side strips that run around the car and polish them up. They weren't very happy with the end result. The strips are shiny at the moment and look great, but with time they will need to be maintained in order to keep that shine being that they don't have any protective coat applied. They applied a new protective coat right after polishing but were very disappointed with the end result. Being that my car will start being put together soon, I don't want the same thing to happen in my case.

Any suggestions, comments, advice of product use, sealants, protective coats used by trial and error would be most welcomed at this point.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Stan]

In the States, there is a company that will polish and ceramic coat those part. They look great when complete.

 

[rsporsche]

polished and then ceramic coating is what i had done to mine and it looks great

 

[adawil2002]

Speedway in California does great work. Have to research if there's someone local in Europe who polishes and ceramic coats.

 

[Sooner]

Agree, Speedway does great work

 

[dave v. in nc]

Poor man's alternative...I stripped mine in a plastic-lined cardboard box, then had them polished, and then I carnuba waxed front and back. Protective and reversible. If it spends a lot of time in the elements, wax often. If it starts to dull, mask with 3M blue painter's tape, and polish with Mother's aluminum polish, and rewax. But then I like a methodical, zen exercise, and mine doesn't sit outside a lot. If yours does, see above posts...

 

[mark99]

+ on speed way, one part not perfect, most looks better than new
I had every thing made of polished aluminum done by them
When people say ceramic coat, what they mean is a spray on coating called Cerakote
It is difficult to apply correctly, I had another shop screw it up

 

[aearch]

yea i just use mothers and be done with it and for storage i cover the trim with blue paineters tape stays perfect all the time

 

[bavbob]

Sounds crazy but I use Minwax floor restorer. It is water based polyurethane, wipes on with a cloth and dries in about 2 min. It stands up to the elements well. If it dulls ( mine has not), just wipe on again. I use it on rubber bits too.

 

[inovermyhead]

I had the same thing, pitted and scratched trim which needed to look better, so after sanding off the anodising all the way up to 2000 grit I had them clear powder coated.... nope looked thick and gluggy and was filled with gas expansion bubbles, so sand that lot off and start again. Next product was some expensive German clear coat especially for aluminium in 2 pac, this made them look dull, so sand that lot off and start again.. now I just polish them, most of the time with car polish and once in a while mask off and use Solvol autosol. My car lives outside under a car cover and we live close enough to the ocean to be able to hear the surf but the trim stands up well looks great if you don't mind a bit of effort now and again.

John

 

[mark99]

Mothers and SemiChrome both seem to have some wax or something in them

 

[stphers]

I have all the belt moldings for a 2002 that I am restoring stripped and polished and they look fantastic but have the same concerns. I bought some 2 part epoxy paint by POR 15 guys called glisten, it is a clear coat that is not suppose to dull or turn yellow. I also have some of eastwoods diamond clear in a spray can. I think that I might try two smaller pieces, one of each and see how it looks

Thanks, Rick

 

[mark99]

I think the problem with most clear coat, like epoxy is that it will look like it is painted with clear paint, meaning it will be notacable
Clear paint has a white highlight, metals have a highlight that is the color of the light
I think the ceramic is thin enough it doesn't have that effect
There is a do it yourself version of the clear Cerakote that you might look into

 

[Layne]

For what it's worth, I polished a piece of windshield trim and had it anodized clear. I was attempting to match some NOS pieces, which is why I went with the original process instead of ceramic coating. However, it came out somewhat more cloudy than the original pieces. Apparently there is something called "bright dip anodizing" that may produce the desired results, but is not an exact process and differs between companies. So I don't recommend anodizing.

I also had one part professionally stripped of the original anodize and that made polishing it MUCH easier. Removing anodize with sandpaper is a real pain. So if you have to polish it yourself before whatever coating, I would have it stripped. It was stupid expensive for one piece, but if you did all of them at once it would probably be a good value.

 

[JFENG]

IIRC Speedway uses a product from:
https://www.clearcoating.com/products/metals/

You can apply it yourself if you are careful.

John

 

[mark99]

IIRC Speedway uses a product from:
https://www.clearcoating.com/products/metals/

You can apply it yourself if you are careful.

John

Which is Cerakote (clear)
John, have you done this yourself and had it work out well? I had some 'pros' (not Speedway) screw up a part
Have you read the cleaning procedure? I am not even sure what that is

 

[inovermyhead]

Layne, to easily remove the anodising just buy some spray on oven cleaner, the stuff eats it and it virtually peels off.
Be careful though you don't want to get it on your skin.

Cheeers. John