How can I knock these dents out of the chrome trim without making it worse...not concours but 'nice'.. I've tried before and it always looks worse than before I started. Thanks

A press and a piece of wood carved in the original contour.

or

Buy new.



I have no idea.

The secret is in the type of hammer and backing bodymen use. I've tried wood backing and small hammers and all I end up with is wood grain chrome. It's reeeaaaalllllll purdy!

As soon as you touch it with a hammer you will see it star crack. That is the anodizing. Find someone in your area that does annodizing. Have the anodizing reversed. (removed) Use a plastic surface as a dolly. Cutting board material works good. Use a body hammer to lightly bump out the surface. More taps are better than hard taps. You will get very good with practice. The surface will be very close before the next step. Use a light file and carfully smooth the surface. Then wet sand the trim working from 800 grit to 1200 grit. Hit it with a bench top buffer. Then when your satisfied it looks perfect bring it back to the anodizer and have it cleared.

After all that work you will likely fold it over your knee and post an ad in the classifieds for a good used one.

If your really interested you may be able to do your own anodizing.

http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=48303

Unfortunately, this is very tender material, and the anodizing is easily cracked, leaving a part down the road that is usually flawed and progressively ugly from th loss off anodizing.

These parts appear frequently for sale, though few are perfect.

I'd search all the primo forums and eBay for something better, because I think yours is a lost cause.
Pat

Thanks Rick..I'll give it a go. It's really thin and all of the one's I see for sale arn't in any better shape.
edit..Good Lord I just read the link on how to anadize. I'd rather be Tiger Woods being beat by his wife than have those chemical at home!

It's aluminum. It's not chrome. Be gentle, spend about 40 hours on each one and you'll be close.

That looks like the sail panel trim.

I've straightened mine out with hammer and dolly. For the hammer and dolly, I put a piece of duct tape on each so as to not scratch the surface. Tiny, tiny pounding on the right place with the right shaped dolly and you can get them pretty close.

BTW, I picked up my hammer and dolly set at Pep Boys for less than $25. If you do any body work or even dent removal, the hammer and dolly set is indispensable.

I did the same thing on chrome bumpers too. Someone had a thread years ago where they pounded out their chrome bumper and the thing looks straight as ever. I could never find that thread after the first viewing.

Go to a jewelry / bead shop and get you some planishing smooth face hammers and smooth steel blocks used for forming silver .The face of the hammer needs to be very smooth, use some sand or shot filled bags as backups to kill the blow, old body men used leather sand filled bags as a backup on various places. Heck if someone with the skill and machinery to make these out of stainless he would become a wealthy person.

Here's what works for me-- I found and old screen beading tool, this had a two inch roller. I replaced it with a new urthane state board wheel that I cut down to about 1/2" in thickness. I used a 2X4 as the hard surface to lay the work piece on.

Try different pressure til you get the small dents out. I would have prefered a "English Wheel" but I still probley had to mod the setup for something so small as the sail trim.

I also found a local anodizer for the stripping/ reanodizing. Located in Sanford,FL.

KP

Does anybody sell those sail panel trim parts new?

I think one side is still available fro the dealer. I've started the tooling for these, but it's going to be awhile.

I think George has them at AA but I believe they run around $170 each. Maybe he will chime in.


KP

Hey Mark,

How about working on the two end trim pieces on the roll bar top. I bought two of those recently at $25 each. OUCH!!!

Mime is Toney.

Buy some in better shape and have them re-anodized.

Much easier. As I understood the ones George has are the OEM. But I will start an interest thread as these should be pretty simple to make.