Looking for some dent and scratch-free trim pieces for a 4-dr. :

Waistline trim (flat sill piece just below windows that holds the scraper),
Rear window surround trim,

Or, how feasible is it to find a good stainless steel straightener/polisher for some dented pieces (including some hub caps) that I have.

If you've had such work done, please share your experiences. Which pieces and how did it turn out??

Mark Sloo
Minneapolis, MN

Thanks for tor the insights. Always great to hear others' experiences.

Mark Sloo
Minneapolis, MN

I did this with SS trim for another project. Minor bumps but a sack of lead shot and a small picking hammer worked very well. Not much to polish out after so I got lucky.

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Mike!

Mark,
I have almost finished the restoration my 67 122S. I was looking at buying aftermarket trim for my car until I found a local guy that does awesome restoration on all the stainless and aluminum on the car. There were pieces I was going to throw away and he made them look better than new. Door & window trim, headlight bezels, grille, hub caps, you name it. A true craftsman. If you are interested I will send you his address and phone number.
cheers
Allen

Hey Allen,

Could you send the phone number and address for the guy who did your polish work to me. I'm getting close to the point that I need my trim shined up.

Thanks, Alan

I have bundles of 122 trim stored in the rafters of my garage. There might be some for a 4 door. If we have any kind of a thaw, and I can get my now brakeless 122 out of the way, then I'll check it out if you need some.
Am also picking up the art of polishing. Buffing wheels, rouge, wire brushes...
It's fun.

I went to borders books and bought a book on how to restore metal automotive trim. It covers how to straighten and polish all types of auto trim. I then bought a set of junkyard hubcaps and hammered them out and began polishing them. The polishing was very difficult with my little bench grinder as stainless is very hard and you need some really good buffer speed to cut it. So after working it for a while I gave up and took it to a chrome shop to polish. I could have done it by myself but I was too impatient. It was pretty easy and I am very pleased with the results. The hubcaps still have a little bit of waviness to them but compared to how they looked before it is amazing. I probably could have gotten them straighter if I had spent more time. For anybody getting into any auto restoration you should get a copy of an Eastwood Company catalog. Just looking through the catalog gives you a really good idea of what is involved in almost every aspect of restoration and what tools and materials are available.

Hope this helps you.

Mario

Do you have the name of the book? Or even better the ISBN Number? I need to do the trim on my 122 and P1800ES.

Merci

Yvan
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65 122, 73 P1800ES, 79 242GT, 80 262C, 81 242, 87 780,88 745T X2, and a plethora of parts cars and eventually to be finished projects