Ok my car spent a good deal of time outside and all of the chrome looks old and the trim around the windows, hood and ever ware that has the non chrome metal looks old too. Can these be polished ? I know the new parts will not be as good as the OEM.
If it is alluminium yes, if it is chromed steel no. I know vent windows are zinc alloy and are easy to polish with lapping paste. More time and patience is needed for the fronts, as there seems to be a layer of chrome.
Chrome, just get repo or have re-dipped. If its aluminum, you've got to remove the coating on it then polish it....but you have to keep it polished, repo stuff usually has the coating already on it. Stainless....it has no coating but it can be polished and stays pretty damn shiny for a while. Mothers billet is the polish of choice for me...done by hand, no machine involved.
I don't think any of the trim on that car is aluminum. It is either chromed pot metal or stainless. If the chrome is pitted, you're pretty much stuck with getting repops or getting the piece rechromed. Rechroming is expensive due to the toxic chemicals used and increasing regulation by the government- expect to pay $50-100 per piece to have it rechromed. It will look like a million dollars when it's done though!
Stainless steel is indestructible. You can bring it back to a show shine as long as it's not dented or torn. A little time with progressive compound and a felt wheel will easily bring it back.
before you chuck them....try and use a little 000 steel wool. My vents and 1/4 windows were pretty bad....just scrub on them with the steel wool and you might surprise yourself how much better they look!
Guess the trim part has been answered - once the chrome is cracked or rust pops up from underneeth it would be uneconomical to have it chrome-plated
For vent windows - the lapping paste can be purchased I guess in any restoration shop or welding supplies. E.g. in eastwood (see below) but this one is way too much $$$
You can polish any zinc/alluminium to a mirror finish with it. just apply it to a buffing wheel (about 2500-3000 rpm). Before applying, you have to have completely flat dink free surface, otherwise you will see every little scratch. Start CAREFULLY with grinder and 120 grit sanding wheel if you have small pots in the frames. You have to grind off all the metal until the pots are not seen. So use even 60 grit if the pots are large. Watch for frame thickness - if you grind off too much the frame will break in half. When pots are removed then continue with 300 grit with vibration sander, then with 1000 grit which should be OK. Don't do any polishing with bare hand because you would spend weeks with one frame. Don't use any steel woool I think it will leave hard-to-repair scratches (I have not tried it though). Use only vibration stuff
When polished, you have to spray it with clear an acryl laque, otherwise it will oxidize rapidly.
ok there is a lot of really bad info in this thread. there is not really any trim on a 69 that is chrome other than gas cap, door handles, side marker lights and backup lights, pretty much everything else is either stainless or bright dipped aluminum.
all the window trim and drip rails are stainless and the hood/grill trim is bright dip aluminum as are the taillight bezels.
the stainless can be polished with a bench buffer and some emory and stainless compounds but it has to be removed from the car. if you don't want to remove the stainless trim some 0000 steel wool will remove the gunk that is built up and some mothers mag polish wil bring back most of the shine.
there really isn't much that can be done for the bright dip aluminum stuff other that cleaning with some baking powder and water solution. if the bright dip trim is original to the car and in otherwise good condition other than some crazing of the bright dip anodizing; IE no big dents or bent pieces, it can be sent out to be re-bright dipped. having the trim re-bright dipped isn't cheap but it's a lot better than the crappy repro trim that doesn't fit worth a crap.
you can also remove the bright dip anodizing and polish the aluminum and then use a good automotive clear on it to preserve the polishing. you can get an anodizing/coating remover from eastwood that will make removing the anodizing much easier.
Pretty much all of my trim is in tact and in great condition (ie no dents or scratches) its just dull I will remove everything for polishing the rear window trim is already removed for my headliner install I will start with it where should I get my supply from I have a HF near me so I don't need to ship or should I stay away from there I know that most of there stuff is pretty crappie.
gas cap pop open Done, door handles will do when I get to the doors , side marker lights and backup lights(got um)
the stainless can be polished with a bench buffer and some (emory)? what is this and were to get it)
bright dip aluminum stuff Hmmm I bet that is what the metal part of the vent windows is made of
)you can also remove the bright dip anodizing and polish the aluminum and then use a good automotive clear on it to preserve the polishing. you can get an anodizing/coating remover from eastwood that will make removing the anodizing much easier.) please tell me more
i got all my buffing pads for my bench grinder from harbor freight, i got the emory and stainless compounds from Home Depot of all places, Ryobi brand is what they carry here and it works really well, if you can't find any of the compounds locally you can also order them and the buffs from Eastwood. do a google search for stainless polishing and you'll find all the info you can ever use on how to do it.
one word of caution if you are going to use a bench grinder instead of a dedicated buffer motor, the bench grinder runs faster and has less horsepower than a dedicated buffer motor. this can result in a couple problems;
1, since the grinder has less HP sometimes the buff will not be able to keep up enough speed and will stop in the middle of polishing a piece, this won't hurt anything but it can be a pain in the butt having to stop buffing and let the motor build up speed again, only to stop again a little bit later. once you have a little practice under your belt you'll learn how to keep this from happening.
2, since the grinder spins faster than a buffer motor it will have a tendancy to grab your part and chunk it across the garage, this can result in damage to the trim piece, this can happen no matter how much practice you have. if it does happen you'll get a quick lesson in how to repair bent, warped or dented trim.
as far as the bright dipped aluminum pieces go, before you can polich them you first have to remove the anodizing and for that you'll need the coating remover from eastwood to really get it all off. you will hear people saying that oven cleaner wil get it off but it rarely gets it all off, you could also sand the coating off but you could possibly damage the part beyond repair. as far as polishing the parts once the coating is removed it's pretty much the same process as polishing the stainless trim but with a softer buff wheel and a finer polish, usually a white rouge or aluminum specific compound. once you have it polished you'll need to clean it really well to get all buffing residue off and any wax grease so you don't get fisheyes in the clearcoat. once it's all clean you'll want to paint it with a good automotive catalyzed clear paint, Eastwood now has 2-part catalyzed paints in a special spray can that you twist a knob on to release the catalyst into the paint that would work great for this if you don't have a paint gun and air compressor.
As far as the bright dipped aluminum pieces go, I want to polish them and to remove the anodizing I'm looking for the coating remover from eastwood what is the name of it they have many products on there and I'm not sure I'm going to get the clear too man thats pricie I hope one can does it I'm not going to do all of the parts at the same time will the can last on the shelf for a wile?
Thanks bnickel for correction about trim and rusting. I was and am talking about restoration, not routine polishing. Just wanted to say that it is uneconomical to repair once polishing does not bring it to a desired condition.
With vent windows, I partially disagree. Even if it is heavily dipped, you can polish it to near new condition if you have patience and firm hand. It is much easier to do rear windows than fronts because fronts are chrome plated (yes they are! at least on my 67 coup) and frames are not flat. So rears are easy (see above post); for fronts the options are
1. Remove chrome mechanically at home and polish zinc with some special grinder. Because they are not flat it impossible to get to every square mm with a regular 20,000 rpm grinder, therefore you need a special grinder. Not recommended.
2. Bring the window to chrome plating facility, where they remove chrome chemically with suplhuric acid (this cannot be done at home). Once it is in a chrome plating shop it is much easier to put a new chrome layer as opposed to polishing zinc. Facilities that deal with non-ferous metals are very rare. So forget that you open yellow pages, and the 1st place you find will welcome you and your windows with open hands.
3. Remove chrome + polish zinc to a shine only on flat areas if the non-flat is good (e.g. outer fronts on 67)
67rcks, i understand what you are saying but on a 69/70 there are no vent windows and on the coupes at least there are no frames on the 1/4 windows, there is a piece of stainless trim either on the front of the 1/4 window (70) or the back of the front window (69). fastbacks are similar in that there is no actual frame there is a piece of trim at the front of the 1/4 window and i believe it is stainless as well.