It's amazing what they used to produce, and I wonder how they made the millions of original pieces that looked so great when they were new. Sometimes I wish there was an interesting way to coat them with something different?
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It's amazing what they used to produce, and I wonder how they made the millions of original pieces that looked so great when they were new. Sometimes I wish there was an interesting way to coat them with something different?
I've seen them painted black to contrast with the paint on the car; it might be possible to powder coat the trim? I just remembered... Bob Chauvin (founder/owner of CARS, Inc) owned several Nomads over the years, mostly original, but he also did a red custom '55 nomad at one time with all the bright trim blacked out...
Nicely straightened and polished stainless looks way better than anything that came out of the factory. Just like the poor gaps and fit and finish on most of these cars as they left the factory. They looked decent from a distance but left a lot to be desired as far as details.
This car at Goodguys Colorado had all the stainless trim and die cast moldings inside and out coated with what looked like Cerakote. It looked pretty good and was probably a lot less work and $$ than polishing and chroming everything. Of course the car was fairly heavily modified too.
Attachment 10176
It's interesting that we spend more $$ straightening/polishing stainless trim on our restorations today, than the ENTIRE car cost new in the mid-fifties! As has been said, 'the dollar ain't what it used to be'... :)
FWIW:
I had seen a tip where one attaches thin trim pieces to a board with strips of masking tape. After having a trim piece I was working on catch, and become a projectile, I tried the tape/board trick. It worked, and I had no more projectiles. It takes more time, because one can only do a section at a time, and then have to shift the tape, but I didn't have to spend the time repairing a projectile.
Regards, Doug
Doug? YOu used regular masking tape? and not duct tape? and it held the trim in place? Can you provide a little more detail... For example a long quarter piece of trim, how many piece of tape would you use? doubled or single? and how wide?
I personally think that would be more trouble than it's worth. Seems like it would be hard to do except for straight pieces, and they're the easiest to control while buffing. I think it's more important to watch the buffing angles and make sure there's nothing for the wheel to catch on. Curved parts are the tricky ones, and you should not try to buff those crosswise at much of an angle or they will likely catch. Also, I let my glove glide on the side of the wheel to help steady the part (a tip from Rodney), and turn the part end for end when I get a ways past center. It's also a good idea to put tape on the buffer shaft and the nut holding the wheel on in case the part slips off the wheel and hits them....it's happened to me :(. There's a ton of ways to do this stuff...everyone has his preferences. I've found some shortcuts in doing this for a few days that work for me.
Yes, I used a good quality, high bond 3M masking tape on a pine 1" board. Multiple spaced out strips of tape beyond the area being buffed, wrapped a couple of times. Your hands still can/do provide clamping force as well to help hold the trim. I used it on longer sections of side trim. I think part of the deal is that the edges that can/do catch are less accessible to the buffer wheel fibers.
good advise about putting tape over the shaft & nut . I've also screwed up a piece of trim from it getting away from me, and tagging that nut as it projectiled itself across the garage!
I need to do the tape trick on mine next.
Well, I did some of the in-place polishing where it was going to be a huge job to get certain trim pieces off and on (around HT windows). I used this pneumatic polisher: https://www.amazon.com/Astro-Pneumat.../dp/B000I1FXVM , taping off areas I wanted to avoid.
Not as good as the large, fixed buffer, and can't fix dents, but significantly improved those stainless pieces.
Regards, Doug